Re: Pectin

Ted,

Many thanks for your detailed response. You've pointed out some very interesting and useful things. Food for thought!!

I very much agree with you on the Taste thing. Flavour is important. The fact that we are small allows us to be a little more experimental.

As far as the natural thing is concerned. We're not trying to mislead the public. We're trying to go for the wholefood thing. I know that's a bit 70's, but people are moving more towards it again in the UK. People want to know where their food comes from and that it's not been messed around with.

We don't need to add anything that the public percieve as 'nasties', so we're trying to avoid it. Admittedly, this route could be naive, and may not be adding that much value to our product (or any at all and may just be costing us more!!! :-) ).

Mat


"Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:newscache$4hhvzj$nph$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"TBI" <mat@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:huOPj.19627$Rr7.18204@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Melba's Jammin'" <barbschaller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:barbschaller-F0A7B2.16563323042008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> I agree with you totaly, but citric acid sounds chemically - and so
does
>> dextrose. I know what they are and where they come from - I've no
problem
>> coz I understand food, but to the uninitiated they don't look natural.
>> It's
>> more of a branding thing. It gives people a warm fuzzy feeling.
>
>> Mat
>
> In a word, pishtosh! You're talking about a "branding thing" and > giving
> people a warm fuzzy feeling. Kewl. So your labels say, "Ingredients:
> Sugar, vinegar, peppers, fruit pectin (mixed with dextrose [a natural
> sugar], and citric acid (to brighten the flavor and assist in the
> gelling process). BTW, citric acid sounds no more chemical than
> ascorbic acid, er-r-r-r vitamin C.

I totally agree with you... but folks don't get that - same as they don't
see the 'no added sugar' thing. It's a culture and education thing I
guess.


I hate to burst your bubble but if you slap the term "Natural" on jelly
you are breaking the law. There is no such thing as "Natural" jelly.

The definition for Natural is here:

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Meat_&_Poultry_Labeling_Terms/index.asp

"...A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color AND IS ONLY
minimally
processed..."

Making peppers into jelly would NOT qualify as "minimally processed" because
it fundamentally does alter the raw product.

Now, let me give you a bit of advice on this jelly thing.

The SINGLE biggest difference between small-batch jellies and the big
commercial jellies and jams is the use of HFCS. (High Fructose Corn Syrup),
AND the selection of raw fruit used to make the jam or jelly.

There is absolutely no way in hell to disguise the taste of HFCS. The
big commercial food industry has spent 40 years gradually weaning the
buying public off Cane Sugar and onto HFCS because Cane Sugar is
more expensive. But there's a solid minority of people who are fighting
this and can still taste the difference - that is why Coca Cola is able to
sell Passover Coke, and why Haggen-Daz is able to sell ice cream that
is 3 times more expensive than the cheap stuff.

Furthermore, there is ALSO a NOTICEABLE difference in taste between
Beet Sugar and Cane Sugar. In fact, I deliberately use beet sugar for
Blackberry jam and Cane sugar for Rasberry jam because the Beet
sugar flavor is heavier and overrides the Rasberry flavorants in the
fruit, whereas the Cane sugar flavor is much lighter.

The other major variable is the ripeness of the fruit. The large commercial
houses make jam in such large batches that they have to take the fruit in
whatever shape they get it. Fruit that is on the green side of ripeness
makes one kind of taste and fruit that is well advanced in ripeness makes
an entirely different taste.

If your goal is to be successful in selling small batches you will need to
focus on a particular flavor that is different than the large jam makers.

Besides making jam myself I have bought at least 1 jar of most of the
local small-batch productions in my area over the years. There are very
definite
taste differences between producers. In a way, making jam at that level
is much like making beer - you can adjust the type and quantity of
sugar to affect flavor, you can adjust the ripeness of the fruit your
putting
in to affect flavor and so on. You will find that if you are able to figure
out
a flavor that is unique to you and reproduce it with some regularity, that
doing that will be FAR more important than whether your labelling is
able to mislead the public that your product is "natural" because people
will
try your product, and the ones that find that they like it will go out of
their
way to buy it again. THAT is the hook that will get you your repeat
customers and get your sales up, it is the TASTE.

Your hung up on the ingredient list, but only a few really off-the-deep-end
people actually buy all their food based solely on the ingredient list.
Most
buy their food based on if it tastes good or not. (of course, loudly
complaining
all the while to anyone who listens that they care about the ingredients)
And you must understand that
the big food producers have very severe constraints on them in that they
must use ingredients that are cheap, and available in bulk, whenever
possible
and that is fundamentally in opposition to the delicate bouquet of flavors
that is achievable with small batches where your free to use the higher
quality raw ingredients.

Ted



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