this years first batch of Prickly Pear Jelly

Spread that on a Martha White biscuit! Good night nurse! Jerry Clower would say "HAAWWWW"

Never had it, but would love to try. I like cactus, I like pears, just never had the jelly.

for me it taste somewhere between an apple and a pear. Its a good unique flavor

They sure make some good Jelly.

Yum

Sure wish I knew how to make some of that. Have plenty of them at the ranch to use.

its not hard, all you need is a few gallons of the fruit, some sugar, some sure gel and some jars and lids.

How do you keep the thorns out of it, the little ones?

Yeah but like activescrape says?

little suckers hurt for days!

OK .heres how you do it.

Here is what you need

• one long metal set of BBQ tongs
• a long blade knife, like a fillet knife.
• a package of cheesecloth (you can buy a pack at any place that sells material like Hobby Lobby or Walmart)
  it is dirt cheap, like only $2
• get a bucket or pail also
• a small propane torch
• old style potato masher
• a colander to strain with.

find a mess of fruits that are deep purple ripe. You grab them one at a time with the tongs.
you should be able to just twist and pull them right off if they are good and ripe.
if you find one that don't want to pull off, just slice it off with the fillet knife, while still holding it with the tongs.

using this method you won't even need gloves because you don't touch the fruits with your bare hands

you will need about 3 or more gallons of fruits to make anywhere from 2.5 to 4 cups of juice for your recipe

take them home and get out your hand held propane torch, light it and turn it way down and set it up on a work space, I used my center island in the kitchen.

grab the fruits with the tongs and hold them right in the fire and rotate them to get the flame all over. you will see the little thorns just burn right off in s split second.

you will get used to what to look for and be able to do this pretty quickly after a few minutes of practice.

now take your fruits and wash them in fresh water. I washed and rinsed mine twice.

Next take a sharp paring knife and quarter the fruits in a stock pot and add just enough water to barely cover them and boil them for 10 minutes

what will happen is that most of the water will boil away and you are left with tender fruits and juice
take an old fashioned potato masher and mash them into a pulp right in the pan. You will really see the juice start to come out.

Next line a colander with two layers of cheesecloth and spoon the mash onto the cheesecloth and let them sit there and drain out. The cheesecloth acts as a strainer for the small parts and the seeds.

I then pressed down on them and forced the juice out right on the cloth, while still in the colander.
finally I picked up the corners of the cloth and made a tea bag of sorts and the more you spin it, it rings the remainder of the juice out. When I couldn't get any more out, I just emptied the cheesecloth of the mashed fruits into the trash. I saved my cheesecloth though and ran my whole batch of fruits through one piece before tossing it away.

then take you juice and make your jelly.
all you will need is some sugar, some pectin like Sure Gel, and your jars.
if you need a recipe, I can post a link to the once I like the most.

Thanks

This is cool. I'm going to do it. Thanks

I remember when I was a little guy my grandma would roll the "tuna" she called them in the sand and I had no clue why. That was how she removed the tiny spines...about 50 years ago. Yep made some really nice jelly

"tuna" is the Mexican name for the fruits

I remember my grand daddy picking those things off with his bare hands, pealing them and slicing them with his pocket knife and them giving me them to eat while we were out at the ranch. Fast forward 30-35 years and I'm out at the farm with my daughters telling them the same story as we pass a cactus full of prickly pears. So I reach down and pick one and try to peal the thing. Ended up chunking it on the ground and picking tiny needles out of my fingers for a couple of days. My girls still don't know what one tastes like. Either my grand dad had hands like leather or I wasn't paying attention and missed a step.

Can this be bought anywhere? I'd love to have some.

I'm not a fan of prickly pear, but I haven't had a lot of it. Looks good for sure, though!

Good stuff. Now is the time to get busy and make some.