Experiments in Food Preservation, Part One: Watermelon Jelly

I know it's November and nearly the end of the harvest season, but I've been meaning to post about this year's experiments with preserves and figured now was as good a time as any. Ever since I started preserving my own jams several years ago, I've been looking for some kind of base recipe to play with. The one book I own on the subject, Carol Costenbader's well-known Big Book of Preserving the Harvest, isn't very helpful in this regard, and the author warns against any changes made to a recipe. Much of the reason for this is that sugar helps to preserve the food, so any decrease in amount or changes in produce can throw off the balance within a recipe. Last year, after some frustration with my preserve-making skills, I discovered Pomona Universal Pectin, which is a wonderful dry pectin that allows you to make low-sugar, honey, or what I call "fake sugar" preserves. Better yet, they provide a recipe sheet that includes instructions for developing your own recipes for preserves. I've been using the stuff for over a year now and can't say enough nice things.

This summer I came into the possession of many watermelons and cantaloupes via my mother's garden. Much as I love melons, I find it really hard to use them before they go bad, so I looked into preservation methods. Because all melons have a high water content, it's difficult to do much with them. But they can be cut up and frozen for later use in sorbet or granita, or you can freeze the pressed juice or puree. A less common method of preserving melons is to turn them into jellies. Though it truly sounds odd, I was intrigued enough by the possibilities to give it a try. Much like grape, or anything other sort of jelly, you start out with juice. To make watermelon juice, you just cut up the flesh and press it through a sieve. The folks at Fair Share Farm posted simple directions for watermelon juice back in August. Yum. Once you've got the juice and the Pomona pectin, the rest is pretty easy.

Below is the recipe I came up with, based on Ponoma's recommendations. This makes a small 1-cup batch, roughly enough for a half-pint jar. I've adjusted the amount of pectin, since the batch I made turned out a bit too thick.

Watermelon Jelly

1 cup watermelon juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon calcium water (included in box of Pomona pectin)
1/4 cup sugar or honey
1/2 teaspoon Pomona Universal Pectin

1. Stir together watermelon juice, lemon juice, and calcium water in saucepan. In a separate bowl, stir together sugar/honey and pectin.

2. Heat juice to boiling and add pectin/sugar mixture. Stir vigorously 1-2 minute to dissolve pectin, then bring mixture back to a boil and remove from heat.

3. Fill jars to 1/4" from top and seal. Store in fridge up to 1 month or process for 10 minutes in boiling-water bath.

So now you're probably wondering how it tasted. Well, to be totally honest, it tastes a bit weird. I tried it with some buttered Farm to Market French Farm bread, and it wasn't bad. My significant other tried some on a peanut sandwich with less success. But give it a try next summer during melon season and see what you think. Maybe you'll love it.

P.S. Once you're done with your watermelon flesh, consider pickling the rind for a sweet winter treat!