Okay, I made this recipe using fresh pomegranate juice. The gummies came out firm and well shaped, but do smell somewhat of beef due to the beef-sourced gelatin. And not in a good way. Also, after removing from the fridge and unmolding, I put in dehydrator at 100 F for 30 minutes which I was testing to try to dry and further firm them, and it looked good, so I pushed my luck and upped the temperature to 120 F and melted most of the beautiful shapes. Still, I recovered the blobs the best I could by separating them. They now sit in the dehydrator drying at room temperature.

To do it again, I’d look into fruit pectin versus gelatin to eliminate the beef smell, and ai said that gelatin could retain moisture and grow moldy so to use pectin for unrefrigerated storage, which is what I wanted. Maybe I’d go half gelatin half pectin because gelatin is nutritious and part of the appeal in gummies. That and needing to use up my tree full of pomegranates.