Homemade pectin. New kitchen caper

Just wondering if it was worth it to take a longish store trip considering, to get a new supply of liquid pectin, since I decided I'm not a fan of the powdered no-cook variety, and decided maybe I could make it in some way.  

There must have been a way to make pectin before manufacturers produced it. So I did a bit of searching and came up with a way of doing it.  And, since I'm always up for a new thing to try in the kitchen on a day when it's too hot to go out in the afternoon, I got to work.

I needed unripe apples,which I don't have, or quinces, which I also don't have.  However I thought it might be an idea to try Granny Smith green apples, and I picked out six of the greenest in the produce department at the Asian store.  Just under three pounds, for future reference in case I ever do this again.

Then scrubbed and rinsed and scrubbed them again, and

chopped them, pits, core and all, into rough bits.  Added enough water to cover, and cooked it all down. 

I arranged two layers of cheesecloth artistically over the top part of the steamer I was cooking the fruit in, slung over a big bowl, so as to be ready to drain it. About 45 minutes later, the fruit was cooked down, very soft, and I started the draining.  Left it for a few hours, then squeezed the cheesecloth to encourage, or bully, the juice to come out.

Then put all the juice back into the cooking pot, now clean again, and cooked it down to about half in volume.  Took, hm, maybe up to an hour, didn't count, boiling constantly to concentrate it.

Ended up with a container of a sort of applesauce, the mash, that is, from which I took a little bowl to test as dessert with a touch of sugar, not bad at all.  Froze the rest, probably for an apple crumble, waste not, want not.

And now I have four cups of pectin, measured into containers, and ready to freeze. You'll notice the tried and true recycled freezer containers, they're indestructible.  I also tested my ladle and found that two scoops is about one cup, always good to know. This was the good bit, that you can freeze this stuff till ready to use it.  I did a bit of math and decided that one pint of the homemade is about enough for one of my smallish batches of fruit.  And homemade works best with small batches.

I'll report back when I use it for an actual jam.  But meanwhile I feel like a pioneer lady, in my handpainted and dyed apron, ready to  sweep the cabin once I find my broom. Listening to Lord Peter Wimsey detecting in an audio book on YouTube kind of spoils the effect, but I do like a nice murder while I cook.

So this is what happens when I'm too lazy to drive to the store..