# Does pectin go bad?



## Megabeth

In the back of a cupboard, I found a box with an expiration of 2006. Can I use it? Hate to toss it -- can't believe the prices for canning supplies this year!!

Thanks for opinions and ideas.


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## margoC

I had read somewhere that it _does_ go bad. Apparently it doesn't work as well when it gets old. Not sure where I read that, maybe someone else can chime in.


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## Marilyn

A friend purchased a *case *of expired powdered pectin at a yard sale. I don't remember exactly how old it was, but she has been using it for at least two years now without any failures - just to confuse the issue for you


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## marinemomtatt

I'm getting to the point that I want to ditch storebought Pectin...liquid and powder.

In June, I spent a day making Strawberry jam, I used liquid pectin (two pouch box, one pouch per batch of jam), The first batch of jam came out great, thickened up by nightfall, the second batch has yet to gel up even though the pectin came from the same box as the first batch.

Going without Pectin will mean a lot more time in front of the stove but that's a lot better than jars and jars of 'jam' that won't stay on a piece of bread.


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## kenworth

> marinemomtatt Join Date: Oct 2006
> Location: Oregon
> Posts: 1,910
> 
> I'm getting to the point that I want to ditch storebought Pectin...liquid and powder.
> 
> In June, I spent a day making Strawberry jam, I used liquid pectin (two pouch box, one pouch per batch of jam), The first batch of jam came out great, thickened up by nightfall, the second batch has yet to gel up even though the pectin came from the same box as the first batch.
> 
> Going without Pectin will mean a lot more time in front of the stove but that's a lot better than jars and jars of 'jam' that won't stay on a piece of bread


Jeesh this is so frustrating. Do you find that the liquid pectin is different than what used to be available in the brown bottle? I stopped buying the liquid stuff and went to powdered, and it's working much better for me.


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## upnorthlady

My experience with old pectin was with liquid pectin. It was 3 yrs out of date. I used it to make a batch of peach jam. It never did gel for me, so I figured it was the old pectin. But I used the un-gelled peach jam for an excellent ice cream topping!


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## Megabeth

Thanks for the input. I think I'll take the risk, since the worst that could happen is marionberry ice cream topping instead of marionberry jam. I guess we could live with that 

I'll let you know how it goes!


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## sweetbabyjane

You can always use 2 boxes of old pectin instead of just 1 box...

SBJ


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## farmerpat

upnorthlady said:


> My experience with old pectin was with liquid pectin. It was 3 yrs out of date. I used it to make a batch of peach jam. It never did gel for me, so I figured it was the old pectin. But I used *the un-gelled peach jam for an excellent ice cream topping*!


It also makes phenomenal pancake syrup too!


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## stirfamily

I used an old batch of liquid pectin to make grape jelly once and all it did was ball up in the jelly.


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## Rick

Megabeth said:


> Thanks for the input. I think I'll take the risk, since the worst that could happen is marionberry ice cream topping instead of marionberry jam. I guess we could live with that
> 
> I'll let you know how it goes!


How did it go?


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