Good morning George -

The cold plate method would be placing a plate in the freezer
untill chilled. dropping some of the mix on the platter and seeing if
it skims over, correct?

The temperature method is based on "if it has a lot of water in it,
it can't get above 212*, but get rid of the water and you can get to
220*; At 220* the mixture will gell", correct?

Finally - the archives describe a simple test for the presence of
pectin. Is it safe to assume that if one took a sample and found it
lacking, you could add commercial pectin, stir and retest until you
got favorable results? - Mike

PS - You don't happen to have a brother named Doug do you?


George Shirley > wrote:

>Cut it in half Mike, won't hurt a thing. The way I make marmalade, and
>I'm sure others do the same, is cooking it down to the proper
>temperature and/or using the cold plate or spoon method to check for
>consistency.