Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly is a low-sugar or low-honey cooked jelly made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener.
Notes
Basic procedure for processing Prickly Pear juice:
- Collect the fruits using tongs placing them in 5 gallon buckets
- Double rinse the fruit and let set in the water while we prepare for processing.
- A bucket/bowl/kettle with a double layer of cheese cloth fastened in place with a rubber band/string/velcro strap/etc
- Using the tongs, place the fruits in the blender and crush for several seconds until there are no whole fruits left.
- Most of the Glochids (thorns/stickers) will come off when they are in the water but it's still a good idea to use the tongs to place the fruits in the blender. Any thorns or Glochids that may still be left on the prickly pear are strained out through the cheese cloth.
- Pour the pulp onto the cheesecloth and let drain into the bucket.
- After the juice is finished dripping, place the plup into a mesh strainer and let drain while processing the balance of the fruit. Alternately, you can place the pulp in a cheesecloth bag and squeeze or press the juice out. A 5 gallon bucket will yield approximately 14 quarts of juice.
- Bring juice to a full, rolling boil.
- Skim impurities off the top. Continue process until there are no impurities coming to the surface when at a full roll boil.
- You are now ready to can the juice into jelly.
Ingredients
- 4 cups cactus juice see note
- 4 teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- ½ cup lemon or lime juice bottled
- ¾ cup up to 1 cup honey or 1 ¼ cups up to 2 cups sugar
- 4 teaspoons up to 5 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin powder mixed with sweetener
Instructions
- Before You Begin, prepare calcium water. To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid.Shake well. Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Wash jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in canner, fill canner 2/3 full with water, bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and keep jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small saucepan; cover and heat to a low boil. Turn off heat and keep lids in hot water until ready to use.
- Prepare prickly pear cactus juice. (see note)
- Measure juice into saucepan.
- Add calcium water and lemon juice and mix well.
- Measure sugar or room temperature honey into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sweetener. Set aside.
- Bring juice mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-sweetener mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the jam comes back up to a boil. Once the jam returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.
- Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 minutes (add 1 minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
Cody!
Hello!
Can I use less than 3/4 cup of honey in this recipe, or is that the minimum required?
If I use fresh squeezed lemon juice, do I use it in the same proportions as bottled lemon juice?
Thanks!
Shelby Collings
You can certainly use less honey if you wish. We recommend using bottled lemon juice because it has a guaranteed pH.
Denise Prehatney
Both last year and this year I’m having problems getting my prickly pear jelly to gel.
Wondering if the instructions for higher elevation are over-cooking the Pectin? Other sources say up to 6,000 ft above sea level should be water-bath canning for 10 minutes. However, using Pomona’s directions, I process for 13 min at my ~3,000 ft elevation. I appreciate any insight. I’ve tried this recipe with both 4C and 8C juice:
8C prickly pear juice
2.5T calcium water (0.5t Ca + 0.5C H2O)
1C lemon juice
1C Agave Syrup
3T Pomona’s Pectin mixed with:
2C sugar (added at the end at rolling boil for 1.5min)
Process in jars in boiling water bath for 13 min (3,000 ft elevation)
Trish
Can I make this recipe with granulated monkfruit or allulose? I am trying to keep sugar out as much as possible. Thanks for any help!
Shelby Collings
We do not have a ton of information about jamming with monk fruit, xylitol or a number of other alternative sweeteners that are new-er to the market.
Cristina Flores Speer
Having grown up eating prickly pears, I learned how to peal them from my mother and although we enjoy them raw, I had been looking for a recipe. My husband would like me to make more of a jam…would I simply process the pealed prickly pears like other fruit? 1- peal and cut into small chunks (about the size of berries) 2- bring to a boil & simmer for 5 minutes 3-mash them and measure out 4 cups 5- proceed using the rest of the quantities listed for the jelly version? I look forward to your suggestions.
Shelby Collings
Thanks so much for reaching out! Great question. You can absolutely use the recipe above and use mashed fruit instead of juice, as you suggested. You will want to decrease the amount of calcium water and pectin to 3 teaspoons each (would be our best guess…though you can use less if you know that you prefer a softer set).
Happy jamming!
Cristina Flores Speer
Thank you for the quick reply! Prickly pear season is just starting so I will have to wait a bit to try this recipe.
Shelby Collings
Happy jamming Anita!
Vicki Hinshaw
I am getting ready to make the Prickly Pear Jelly. Can I add jalapeños to this recipe? If I do not have enough juice what can I add to make the necessary amount for the recipe?
Shelby Collings
Hello Vicki,
We have never added jalapenos to this recipe, but you could give it a try. If you choose to give it a go, maybe look at one of our other fruit/jalapeno recipes to give you an idea of how much of each ingredient you will need.
If you do not have enough juice, you can add water or some 100% juice or juice concentrate to your mixture.
Happy jamming!
Vicki Hinshaw
Thank you for the quick reply. I absolutely love Pomona Pectin!
Ellen Maisen
Hi, thanks so much for all of your advice and your incredible product. I used another method to prepare the pears. I peeled them with a knife while holding them down with a fork. (It’s from a website). I then put the pears into a blender and strained the juice out through a metal sieve. It took some time, but it was less prickly than trying to mash it out through cheesecloth and I froze the juice in ice cube trays till I had enough to make the jelly. I looked everywhere for a food mill, but could not find one at a local store. I got some pears from a friend who torched them to remove the prickles and there were still a few prickles even after such careful strategies were used to render them harmless! I made a mango prickly pear jelly that is really good! Thanks again, so nice to be able to make low sugar recipes!
Chris
We made your prickly pear jelly and it turned out perfect!!! We used honey and now we would like to make the next batch a little sweeter using more honey..so my question is how would I adjust the ratio of ingredients to make a double batch without changing the consistency? Thank you!!!!
Shelby Collings
Wonderful! You will just need to double all the ingredients, as they are written. Once your mixture is about ready to go into jars you can add additional sweetener/honey. Once that is mixed in well, proceed with canning your jars and water-bath canning.
Happy jamming!
Chelsea
Hi, I followed this recipe but my prickly pear jelly turned out very watery. I put it back on the stove and added more pecin, repeated that process, and it’s still watery. Any suggestions or help tips? Thanks!
Shelby Collings
Hello Chelsea,
Thank you so much for choosing Pomona’s Pectin! I can’t say for sure what happened in your recipe, but it sounds like your pectin may have become deactivated. If the pectin in boiled too long before it is canned, or is in the water-bath canner too long, the excessive heat can deactivate it’s jelling abilities.
4 cups cactus juice
4 teaspoons calcium water
½ cup lemon or lime juice
¾ cup up to 1 cup honey or 1 ¼ cups up to 2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons up to 5 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin powder
Should jell up nicely.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can do help.
Kindly,
Shelby
Elizabeth
When we process prickly pears the basic process is to: 1. Collect the fruits using tongs and place them in 5-gallon buckets. 2. Double rinse the fruit in the buckets and let it sit in the water while preparing for processing. 3. Cover the top of a bucket/bowl/kettle with a double layer of cheesecloth fastened in place with a rubber band/string/velcro strap/etc. 4. Using the tongs, place the fruits in a blender and crush for several seconds until there are no whole fruits left. Most of the Glochids (thorns/stickers) will come off while the fruits are sitting in the water, but it’s still a good idea to use the tongs to place the fruits in the blender. Any thorns or Glochids that may still be left on the prickly pears are strained out through the cheesecloth. 5. Pour the pulp onto the cheesecloth and let drain into the bucket. 6. After the juice is finished dripping, place the pulp into a mesh strainer and let drain while processing the balance of the fruit. Alternately, you can place the pulp in a cheesecloth bag and squeeze or press the juice out. A 5-gallon bucket will yield approximately 14 quarts of juice. 7. Boil juice to a full rolling boil. 8. Skim impurities off the top. Continue this process until there are no impurities coming to the surface when at a full rolling boil. 9. You are now ready to can the juice or make it into jelly.
Mary Lou Sumberg
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks so much for sharing your method of processing prickly pears for jelly. I’m sure it will be helpful to others.
cowgirl
I made Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly. It was good but I am wondering if I could use fruit juice concentrate in place of sugar.
Mary Lou Sumberg
Hi,
Yes, you could use fruit juice concentrate as your sweetener instead of sugar. Follow the directions for dissolving the pectin in the boiling fruit juice concentrate on the back side of the directions and recipes that come with the pectin, the green section.
If you are making a standard recipe, you would use 3 cups of cactus juice and 1 cup of juice concentrate for dissolving the pectin. Use the amounts of calcium water, lemon or lime juice, and pectin as stated in the Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly recipe.
Sharon Byers
Just a note to those needing prickly pear juice info: 40 lbs of pears gave me 14+ quarts of juice. I quartered the fruit, just covered with water and cooked. Strained the juice…and got ‘er done. Beautiful jelly too. I used a recipe (5 cup juice, 7 c. sugar etc.) before I ordered Pomoma’s Pectin. But all I have left will be made with Splenda so I can share with ALL my friends, including those watching blood sugar levels. God Bless!
Mary Lou Sumberg
Dear Sharon,
Thanks so much for sharing your method for getting the juice out of the prickly pears and also the number of pounds of pears you processed and how much juice that gave you — invaluable information for us and our customers!
I’m very happy you discovered Pomona’s while you still have some juice left to work with.
Best of luck in your project — feel free to let us know how it turns out with Splenda.
Angelique
Can I make freezer jelly with the prickly pear cactus juice?
Mary Lou Sumberg
Hi Angelique,
We don’t make freezer jelly with Pomona’s because when you stir in the teaspoons of calcium water, that is when the jell suddenly takes place. If you are stirring a “jelly,” when the jell suddenly comes on, the jelly will not be smooth like it should be. I don’t know if you can make raw freezer jelly with other pectins or not.
I suggest you look around on the internet for instructions on handling the fruits and extracting the juice and pulp. This is not something we have experience with.
Dianne Junker
Just exactly how do you prepare prickly pear cactus juice? And how much cactus (leaves,too?) must you buy to yield 4 cups? Looks intriguing otherwise….
Mary Lou Sumberg
Dear Dianne,
We know how to make the jelly, but unfortunately, we are not experts in a particular method of preparation of the cactus juice. There are so many different methods discussed on the internet. Our best advice is to do some research and pick the method that you want to try. The juice comes from the fruits, not the leaves. One blog I have read says that depending on the size of the prickly pears, you need 6 to 12 to get about 1 cup of juice.
Good luck if you decide to give it a try — and thanks for using Pomona’s.
Cannonball
Dear Diane Junker,
Just use the pears, the darker the better. Twist them off the pads, using tongs. DO NOT HANDLE THE PEARS WITH YOUR HANDS!!! Put the pears in a 5 gallon bucket, then dump the pears in the sink; fill with hot water and let sit 10 minutes. WITH YOUR TONGS, swish a pear in the water, pull it out and cut in half, lengthwise. I fill a 16 quart pot with an inch of water; when I cut a pear I use a bowl or a high sided plate to catch the juice. After you cut a pear, put both halves into the 16 quart pot. When the pot is 3/4 full, boil the pears and spines — ALL for 30 minutes; smash it all down with a potato masher once every 10 minutes. Pour through 6 layers of cheesecloth. Let the juice drip from the cheesecloth into a large bowl for 2 hours. You may freeze the juice for long-term storage.
Depending on how ripe the fruit is, I usually get a little more than 1/2 the amount of juice — a 5 gallon bucket of pears comes out to 2-3 gallons of juice. Hope this helps, my friend!!!
Cannonball
Can this recipe be made with Stevia? I would like to keep the sugar completely out!! Thank You For Your Help!!
Mary Lou Sumberg
Hi Cannonball,
Yes, any of our recipes can be made with Stevia. If you are using cup-for-cup Stevia, you would measure and use it just like sugar in the recipe. If you are using concentrated Stevia, you need to follow the directions on side 2 of our new direction and recipe sheet (the one with the colors in the background) titled “Directions for Cooked Jam, Jelly, Jello — Stevia Concentrate or No Sweetener.”
Mary Lou Sumberg
Thanks for sharing your method, Cannonball. Much appreciated.
Lee
There’s some very good suggestions for preparing prickly pears. Always wash very well, then I simply cut into a few pieces drop them into a food mill over a pan or bucket then start turning the mill. Then strain through cheese cloth or a scolded white 100% t-shirt. Then freeze for later or use right away. All these methods will work. Don’t use directions that have u scrubing or senging of the little stickers it’s unnecessary. Do use tongs when handling the fruit.
Anita
Thanks so much for this clear explanation of making prickly pear cactus juice the easy way. I often wondered if I could not just use my steam juice extractor. Will try both methods this summer. Thanks again.
Farmer Deno
Incredible ….is your pectin. No other words for it. I may add too…..that your website is flawless….easy navigation, great tips, recipes that included the prickly pear jelly (which turned out perfect).
I would love to write about Pomona’s Pectin on my blog!
Mary Lou Sumberg
Thanks so much for your comment on our website, and our pectin, Farmer Deno. I will share it with my partners and with our website designer, Jeremy Jones . We worked hard on the website, and continue to do so. It’s comments like yours that keep us going!
Please feel free to write about Pomona’s on your blog. Sounds like you have taken on a rather large project, and are having a good time with it.