The pectin-alcohol test can be used here again to find out whether there is much or little or no pectin left.  If much pectin is present, you can repeat the operation and get Extraction Three.

Three extractions usually exhaust the pectin, but sometimes you can get as many as five extractions.

You may say, “Why bother with extractions—­why not squeeze the juice and be done with it?” You will get clearer, better-flavored and more glasses of jelly if you will make the extractions than if you squeeze the jelly bag.

I always make the jelly from Extraction One by itself, but usually combine Extraction Two and Three.

The next step in jelly making is vitally important—­that is, how much sugar to use to a given amount of fruit juice.  This is where many housewives “fall down” on jelly making.  They use the same proportion of sugar to all juices.

To make jelly that does not crystallize the right proportion of sugar must be added to the juice.  To make jelly that is not tough or unpleasantly sour, the right proportion of sugar and juice must be used.

Currants and unripe or partly ripened grapes are so rich in pectin that they require equal amounts of sugar and juice—­that is, to every cup of extracted currant and grape juice we add one cup of sugar.

Red raspberries and blackberries require three-fourths of a cup of sugar to every cup of juice.  All fruits which require much water in the cooking take three-fourths of a cup of sugar to every cup of juice.  Crab apples and cranberries are examples.

It is harder to make jellies from the fruits to which a large amount of water is added than from the juicy fruits.

I am frequently asked, “When should you add the sugar to the fruit juice in jelly making?  Do you add it at the beginning of the boiling, in the middle of the process, or at the end, and should the sugar be hot when added to the juice?” It is better to add the sugar in the middle of the jelly-making process than at the beginning or the end.  Skim the juice well before adding the sugar, so as to lose as little sugar as possible.

If the sugar is hot when added it will not cool the juice, and thus the cooking time will be shortened.  To heat the sugar put it in a granite dish, place in the oven, leaving the oven door ajar, and stir occasionally.  Be careful not to scorch it.

After the juice is put on, the jelly making should be done as quickly as possible.  No simmering should be allowed and no violent boiling.  A steady boiling, for as few minutes as possible, will produce good results.

Currant, blueberry and grape jelly usually can be made in from eight to ten minutes.  The hot sugar is added at the end of four or five minutes.

Raspberry, blackberry and apple jelly take from twenty to thirty minutes.  The sugar is added at the end of ten or fifteen minutes.

The jellying point is hard to determine.  If you have a cooking thermometer or candy thermometer always use it when making jelly.  It is the one sure, reliable test.