Does altitude affect Jelly (Jell-o) setting?

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
21
It was posted whilst I was writing my post, so it was not showing until after I posted.

22
Vodka Jello shots everyone.

23
Where did you buy your UK jelly from?

I've bought Hartley's jellies from Globus in Lausanne and had similar results to your description.

I eventually figured out why... They'd covered over the English instructions on the packet with a sticker that gives the instructions in French... only they were wrong.

The amount of liquid had been incorrectly translated from "make up to 1 pint" to "add 1 pint", meaning that I had more liquid than I should have had, and thus an incorrect solution which did not set as solidly as I was expecting.

Worked fine once I went back to the English instructions..

24
You didn't add any fruit did you?

The enzymes in kiwi or pineapple can prevent jelly from setting properly.

25
Just add some mercaptoethanol

26
Thank you all for your 'science' answers. My former A-level Biology students will be very disappointed that I have forgotten such simple BioChem - that's what having kids and trying to learn a new language does to the old grey matter!

I will initially try less water, if that fails I may attempt making 'real' jelly using gelatin sheets cooked for a little longer.

27
I am at just under 1200m and if I make a jelly in a mould it does seem to be squidgy.

If I put it to set in the fridge in a basin - it is fine.

I do not think the altitude affects mine - but when I buy crisps or anything in a sealed packet and bring them here the altitude makes the bag just about burst

28
So do you wear a 34B when you are down on the lake?

29

Do you know - it's only in the last week that I realised you were a guy - always thought you were a girl - (now I know for sure )

30
Well, you were certainly wrong this time. Also what you say above is rubbish. Gelatin gels are made up of short pieces of collagen structure in a continuous water phase. Time to reread or chuck out whatever old colloid textbook you thought you got this from.

Modesty forbids from citing my own papers , so try this one:

All Gelatin Networks: 2. The Master Curve for Elasticity †

Christine Joly-Duhamel, ‡ Dominique Hellio, ‡ Armand Ajdari, § and Madeleine Djabourov * ‡

Laboratoire de Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR ESPCI-CNRS 7636, and Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR ESPCI-CNRS 7083, 10, Rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris Cedex 5, France

Langmuir, 2002, 18 (19), pp 7158–7166

31
Aw, go on! Seize this opportunity with both hands whilst you can - you won't get another chance to do it on EF for quite a while, I would suspect

32
Apart from laws of physics stated above, I always believed in RTFM rule, but I think in this case it was opposite and "translate the f...n manual" rule applies

In other disputable cases, the laws of physics always apply.