Prickley Pear Jelly

[Bountyhunter]

I promised someone that I wouldnt hijack their thread and would put this down here. We have the freezer full of venison tamales and now we have a counter full of PPJ. (Prickly Pear Jelly)

"To make rabbit stew, first ya gotta ketch yas a rabbit". So, first you have to find a patch of prickly pear that has fruit (fruit is called tunas) on it. They are all over the southern half of the United States, so for you in that area, it shouldnt be difficult.

Pick you a couple 5 gallon buckets full. Dont use your fingers. Gloves are of no use either. You need to use pliers or kitchen tongs. The stickers will go through leather gloves like they werent even there. I spread the fruits on a rack in the BBQ grille and then flame them with a weed burner. Make sure that those little stickery spots on the fruit glow red and burn off. You dont need to overdo it, you can tell by watching close.

This is the ones that were on the grille.

You can now handle them with your fingers. The tiny stickers are burned off. If you miss some and get some in your fingers, use some sticky tape and push it down on your skin and then pull it off and it will pull the stickers out. I quarter the fuits and put them in the juicer.


Susan got the juicer from Lehmans in Pennsylvania, supplier to the Amish.
It brings the juice off at about 165 degrees and does not cook off the vitamins. You can also put the fruit in a big pot and cover with water and then just cook them down as you would any other fruit. Cook them good and then strain off the juice and squeeze it out. If you do that, make sure that you strain that juice good just in case anybody missed a sticker along the line.
This is what you will get from about 2 gallons of fruit.

3 quarts of concentrated juice which will take days to wear off your fingers, and about 3 quarts of pulp for jam or sorbet, and almost a gallon of seeds. What is missin is about a quart or so of skins off the fruit pieces.

This juice can now be used for mixed drinks, for jelly, or just drinking. It is full of anti oxidants, and the University of Arizona has done a lot of research work on it for cholesterol and insulin control. Susan makes sorbet from the pulp.

I have played with it as a dye but have not found the correct mordant to set it in cloth, but I can tell you that the dishrags that I used to clean up are still pink. I think it could make a real good intense red dye.

The leaves of the PP can also be eaten, or used for jelly. They are "napalitos". Here, they are cut into slices and pickled. My grandmother used to cook them down and make jelly.

Once you have the juice, then use it as you would any other for jelly. You can also add hot peppers like jalapenos for a hot pepper prickly pear jelly.

Oh, if you dont fill the jars but about 3/4 full, you can freeze them. All of our juice is frozen, in jars.

Merry Christmas and Enjoy

Bill and Susan

 

Prickly Pear will grow about anywhere. When we lived on the farm my wife had a succulent garden in which she planted some prickly pear. After a few years the stuff about took over!! She too made jelly out of the....pods....for lack of a better term....and the stuff is good!

We weren't quite as informed as we should have been.....I believe I still have some stickers imbedded in my flesh....and it's been almost 8 years ago!!

Vic

 

[Bountyhunter]

I guess if there is a secret to all this, it is to burn those stickers off. When we first started, I speared those tunas with an old fork and burned them one at a time with a propane torch. You can do them over a gas stove burner, any open flame, just need to get enough burn to burn those little stickers. Each one of those little "white bumps" is a group of about a hundred really fine little aggrevating stickers.

 

[Walks Alone]

Very nice write up and pictures Bill.

Since I live on the Mojave Desert part of the year, Opuntia Jelly has been a staple in the "maiden" cupboards for years (Opuntia is the genus name of prickly pears BTW). I have plants actually "staked out" on the desert near home that I collect from each year, with number labels referring to bloom color and the past years jelly quality. Tastes differ, but I found that the best overall comes from Opuntia's with yellow blooms and that also grow on rocky outcroppings rather than on the desert floor. Even so I make batches from every flower color and ship them away for the holidays to friends who don't live where they can easily get them.

Please pass the toast... either Hawaiian Sweet or Taro bread of course. Yum!

WA

 

[Bountyhunter]

I now live on Ute Lake in eastern New Mexico. It was so dry here last winter and spring that the pears did not bloom nor set any tunas. We found the few that we got this year in some back alleys where they were able to get some water from yards.

There are also different species in this area, and the ones that grow in the mesquite behind our house have little bitty tunas about like a pecan, not the nice ones like in the pictures. I spent 20 years with USDA, but have been away from it for so long that I dont remember the different names anymore.

We have a favorite patch that is in a rocky outcropping about half way up the side of a 1000 ft mesa about a hundred miles from here. However, after hiking there in September, there were non. We had driven 100 miles just for the hike. Oh well, we will pray for rain and go back next fall.

We have found that the pectin content of the fruit varies with the time of the year, and also varies from year to year, so we have not found a real good rule about getting the juice to jell. Susan prefers the Surejell and another lady swears by the liquid Certo.

I will close out by saying that since Susan has some diabetic problems, she has developed a low sugar recipe that makes really good jelly. So, if any of you are fighting that battle, PM me and I will twist her arm for the low sugar recipe for you.

Bill

 

[Walks Alone]

It’s interesting that your favorite "patch" grows on a rocky outcropping, since my favorites also grow in that same habitat. While I am a amateur botanist (out of need for a lifetime of lepidopteran studies), I can only speculate why though. Probably the meat is more concentrated because of less water, which would also help enhance the mild flavor. Same with the bloom color. With many of our local species individual plants can be any of several bloom colors even though they are the exact same species. So why one color seems to make better jelly I don't know. I do know the tunas with the fewest seeds yields the best jelly though.

While I do know the species by name in the areas I visit, Opuntia contains hundreds of species worldwide. And it includes the Cholla (in a subgenus), whose tunas are also edible although they are much smaller generally. And the tunas of several other genus of cacti are also edible. No doubt you have way more species of Opuntia where you live than I do though. Nopales are also generally made from Opuntia species too BTW.

Any guess what kind of jelly was on my Taro toast this morning? :winking:

 

[Bountyhunter]

I think we have two species here, Good and Gooder. The jelly is interchangeable.

That Cholla is bad stuff. My house is surrounded by it. This coming spring, I'm going to get the Bobcat and pull it all out. They call it jumping cactus here. Those joints seem to break off and jump out and stick into you and then you have a really nasty ugly infection to deal with.

 

[JiminTexas]

What does Cholla have to do with Prickly Pear? I underswtand that they grow in the same regions, but, they are not the same thing. Am I missing something here?

 

[Walks Alone]

What does Cholla have to do with Prickly Pear? I underswtand that they grow in the same regions, but, they are not the same thing. Am I missing something here?

You must have missed this... the reason for Bill's comments.

... Opuntia contains hundreds of species worldwide. And it includes the Cholla (in a subgenus), whose tunas are also edible although they are much smaller generally...

 

[Bountyhunter]

Yes, you missed one line where W.A. mentioned that cholla, and for you folks not from the cholla growing areas it is pronounced CHOY-AH, was also a related species, but not suitable for making jelly.

Its still nasty stuff. Good only for feeding pack rats and protecting bird nests. I do like the lattice skeleton of the plant for making knife handles though.

 

[xxgrampa]

hi-ho,

like anything else, diff regions have diff dialects. here in s ca it's pronouncd cho-ya.

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Wooly bear is another name for cholla, more than one tourista has regretted kicking that fuzzy looking bush.

For sheer nasty, nothing come close to blundering into a barrel cactus at night. Of course ocotillo (AKA coachwhip, Jacob's staff, vine cactus and nature's barb wire) is no slouch when it comes to ripping one up.

 

[BillinOregon]

Bounty Hunter: Hvae a picture of cholla lattice skeleton as a knife handle? Sounds real interesting.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Bill,

I dont happen to have one, I have a bad habit of givin a lot of stuff away. I do have a couple of blades that need to be finished, and I'll see if I can rig somethin up so I can get ya a pic so you have an idea.

Bill