Use hard-ripe fruits when not adding pectin. Use fully ripe fruits if using pectin. Apples, currants, crab apples, grapes and sour plums do not need added pectin - there is enough in the fruit!
Use equal parts of ripe and slightly under-ripe fruit for best flavo when making jelly.
If you want to save some $$ (and who doesn't right now!), when you make a jam, let the fruit boil for about 10 minutes before you add any sugar. I'll bet you find you will only want to use about 1/2 as much as the recipe call for.
