I find it easy to hold prickly pear with tongs make a slit on outer skin and separate with two forks. The fruit will separate from outer skin.

I make prickly pear wine. I picked 50 lbs, placed them in boiling water for 3 min, swished it around, that removed about 95 percent of thorns then I pealed each tuna w knife holding the tops. I only got 1 or 2 thorns on my hands I LOVE IT. A worth it.

Thanks for the recipe but I fig. out my own way. I tried everything to get the spines off of the fruit. I finally put my kitchen gloves took the fruit cut the ends off of each apple and when it is good and ripe you can take your knife and skin it real easy and a lot faster then I stem them had the prettiest red juice. I strained it real good to make sure I didn't have any seeds. It is nice red juice.
This isn't the way everyone said to do but I found it easier for me this way I knew I wasn't going to get those spines in my juice. I have made about everykind of jelly their easy and always try the easy way out.

Thanks
Bessie Baker

I harvest the fruit with tongs. To get the fruit out, I tried all the methods mentioned. When ready to harvest the pulp, I used a fork and put the fruit on the cutting board (no prep at all.) I took a knife and took off the top and bottom. I took the knife and cut where the fork was - in half. I kept the fork in it and used a spoon to scoop out the center. ...pushed the discarded skin into a bag on the back of the cutting board. It was really easy. I did use disposable vinyl gloves on my hands just in case. The fruit was easy to extract and fairly quick.

Followed this recipe and I instructions and it worked like a charm. Got all the little stickers off by swishing the fruit in the sink. Thank you all for the great recipe and advice.

Remove spines by rolling around in a colander...

I pick them with thongs burn with torch skin put whole in juicer seeds an pulp out the back good juice out the front then boil add sugar lemon peck put in jars boil in water done. I made 40 pints, all good.

Excellent recipe... beautiful color and taste. I finally got tired of picking spines from my fingers after using leather gloves to roll the pears in my gloved hands. This year I got a towel that was ready for the trash, loaded it with enough pears, with tongs, to shake in a tightly closed towel basket, shook for a while, and all spines were caught in the towel. I handled without any trouble cutting each end off, splitting and mashing to make juice for drinking fresh, jelly, wine and beer. Throw the towel away or burn it afterwards... it cannot be washed or reused!!!

I used my handy stainless steel juice extractor/steamer. Picked the tunas with gloves put them in "Wal-Mart bags" put a layer of cheese cloth in the top of my steamer and dumped in enough to fill to fill 3/4 way full. Now I have about 1/2 gallon of beautifulf juice! Easy peasy!

The best strainer I have found is paint strainer bags that you can buy at Lowe's and Home Depot. They have elastic bands on the opening which makes it good to hold the bag in a pot or bucket.
I just picked 10 gallons of fruit yesterday to make wine out of. Very good stuff.

I have 12 (1/2 pint) jars of Prickly Pear jelly cooling on my counter now. The easiest way to extract the juice is to freeze them for a week, then defrost them in a cheesecloth lined strainer in a warm kitchen overnight. The freezing splits the skins, and as they thaw they drain and look like giant raisins in the morning. Just empty strainer into trash and you are done!

Freezing is the first method I came up with to process the prickly pears in my yard. I pick them with tongs, put them in a bowl and place in the freezer for several days. Freezing causes ice crystals to grow, rupturing cell membranes and releasing juices. Upon removal from freezer, place in a cheesecloth lined colander and let thaw overnight. When thawed, don't touch. Just slice at them with a knife and attack with a potato masher to extract the juice. Never any need to deal with spines. Once the mess is done dripping, make jelly in the usual way. Be sure to scatter the seeds and skins outside so the birds and other critters can propagate them to make more cacti.

I have been making prickly pear jelly for a couple of yrs now. I use my barbeque and tongs to get the thorns off, after I cook them like potatoes I mash them and then just use a couple of coffee filters to strain the juice.

HI I live in NM and have a LOT of prickly pear fruit in my front yard. I have always wanted to make jelly from it. But I don't have a juicer. I have read I can boil the fruit and then strain it. How long should I boil it? Does a cheese cloth work for straining it? Thanks I super appreciate any info!

To make 1 gallon of jam pick about a Walmart sack of fruit. Burn off thorns over fire. Toss whole fruit in boiling water till color changes or about 15 to 20 minutes of boiling, then toss fruit in food processor, strain juice through cheese cloth. This should give about 3/4 of a gallon of juice, then add cranberry juice to make the full gallon. To that add 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 2 1/2 cups of sugar, use 2 packages of low sugar pectin, mix over low heat and jar up without boiling then seal jars in boiling water for at least ten minutes.

I have been reading several comments on removing spines from prickly pear. Last year I did the scrub brush method and then dealt with spines in my hands for weeks. This year I took the two oven racks outside, place the fruit on a rack and "torched" the fruit to burn off the spines. The second rack was then placed on top to allow me to flip (with assistance) the entire batch over to singe the other side. Much better than last year, but I am kind of liking the "boil the crap out of 'em" suggestions followed by a straining technique.

Since it still is the season, I think I may try a boil process just to see if this would be less pain (fewer tweezer moments and far less time prepping the fruit by removing spines and then removing skin). If I remember, I will post the results here.

The first batch is on the stove. That was the batch I torched using a brush burner, followed by pealing and boiling.

When it comes to cacti, we all proceed through several learning curves until we figure out which works best for us at the moment.

I steamed my prickly pears for 15 minutes, then just squeeze them with my potatoe ricer, and for good measure, I run the juice through a very fine strainer.