Jelly making - do you squeeze?

[Millymollymandy]

I have never squeezed when making jelly cos my books say it turns jelly cloudy - however I do when making cordial and my cordials are not cloudy at all.

I need to make a decision cos I currently have dripping 2kg of blackcurrants with 2kg of apples which were simmered in 2 litres of water. The bag of muslin is so huge and heavy but because there is so much pulp and apple skin and pips and stuff in there it's dripping through really really slowly and I seem in danger of getting out much less liquid than I put in (let alone the juice from the fruit)!

So..... what do I do? I will leave it to drip over night but I am sorely tempted to squeeze the rest out tomorrow - I could make cordial from what is left but that seems like a bit of a faff to have to do that and jelly, but I'm not wasting all that liquid.

What would/do you do? Help!

[Green Aura]

Do you care if your jelly is cloudy? I doubt if it affects the taste. I'd go for quantity and squeeze

[Silver Ether]

I would take some of the weight out of the muslin ... I would not squeeze just incase ... I should hate to get all cloudy after all the effort... oh and I am no expert ... do lots but not an expert on any of them ...

[Millymollymandy]

Thing is, would I even notice if blackcurrant coloured liquid is cloudy? My elderberry cordial was squeezed to death and that isn't cloudy at all! Hmmmmmmm..........

[Shirley]

Give it a squeeze - can't leave it dripping forever can you.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh all right I will give it a good squeeze tomorrow - just hope the cupboard door handles can take the strain overnight (it's what I tie my bag up to!).

[Millymollymandy]

I didn't squeeze exactly but had a good sort of squidge around and move the bag up and down (it's so tactile doing that!!!) so quite a bit more liquid came out but it is getting very thick now. I'll squeeze the rest this morning but keep that separate, add some sugar and hot water and have an instant blackcurrant drink from it. I think there's about 2 litres of liquid now. Cheers everyone.

[Millymollymandy]

All done now - glad to say I got 2.8 litres of liquid and when I had a last real squeeze this morning (separately) all that came out was about half a mug full of frothy cloudy thick stuff - it really was just down to the pulp left.

So I have 10 mostly large jam jars full of jelly - set seems fine and it tastes bloody wonderful!

And no lemons were needed.