Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Guava Jelly
Guava Jelly
Peel and cut into quarters about a hundred ripe guavas, plunge them into a bowl of water, wash thoroughly, place them in a saucepan with sufficient water to cover, and boil for two hours, or until they are perfectly tender and break easily when touched. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing the fruit so as to obtain as much as will come through easily, and allowing it to drip for a day or so if required. Pour the juice into a preserving-pan, and boil well, skimming often; add by degrees sufficient sugar to sweeten, boil for a few minutes, squeeze in the juice of ten large limes, boil until all the scum is risen, and the jelly is clear, pour it while warm into jars, cover them over tightly, and let the jelly get cold. It is then ready for use.
A straightforward two-stage jelly: extract the juice, then boil it with sugar and lime. The only real vagueness is in the quantities, and guava's high natural pectin makes it forgiving.
- The sugar is not optional guesswork"Sufficient to sweeten" understates it. Jelly sets on the balance of pectin, acid and sugar; use roughly 3/4 cup sugar to each cup of strained juice, warmed in first so the boil is not knocked back.
- Use fruit slightly underripePectin is highest just before full ripeness and falls as the fruit softens. A mix of ripe and just-turning guavas gives both flavor and set. Peeling is unnecessary for jelly since everything is strained; the skins and seeds carry much of the pectin.
- Two hours is for a large panThe timing probably reflects the volume of fruit here. For a domestic batch of a few pounds, 30-45 minutes at a bare simmer should be enough to break the fruit down, and less cooking tends to give a brighter pink juice.
- Pressing versus clarityThe instruction to press the pulp and drip it "for a day or so" pulls two ways. Pressing raises yield and clouds the jelly; letting a jelly bag drip untouched overnight gives the clear result the recipe asks for at the end. Choose one.
- The limesTen large limes is roughly a cup to a cup and a quarter of juice. Their role is chiefly acid, and adding them late as written keeps more of the fresh aroma. Bottled lime juice works and is more consistent in acidity.
- Judging the set"Boil until the jelly is clear" means the sheeting stage. Work to 220F/104C at sea level, or chill a spoonful on a cold plate and push it with a finger to see if it wrinkles. Guava can reach this in eight to ten minutes once the sugar is in.
- Filling and keepingCovering warm jars tightly, as written, gives no seal by modern standards. Treat the result as a refrigerator jelly, or follow current guidance for a boiling-water process if it is to sit in a cupboard.
Guava jelly reached American tables from the Caribbean, where the fruit is native to tropical America and where the boiled-down paste and the clear jelly have long been staples; the jelly was a familiar West Indian export in the nineteenth century, reaching northern ports in tins and boxes. The pairing of guava paste or jelly with a fresh white cheese remains standard across Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean.