As I recently came into an abundance of grapes, there were decisions to be made regarding the preservation of such a plethora of fruit.
Okay, not really, my husband is going to turn most of the several hundred pounds of juicy grapeness into vino, but that's an entirely other blog post.
Me, I am not a master vinter, but I am pretty decent at making canned goods and edible comestibles, so when I saw one big bag of fresh Concord grapes sitting on the counter, of course I requsitioned it for jelly making purposes.
Because one of my offspring is a PB&J devourer!
Anyway, I tend to use the same process for making jelly from fresh grapes, with the first step being smash, simmer, and strain.
That's right, the three S's of juice extraction!
I start with about five pounds of grapes, wash them, and then throw half of them in a large bowl before attacking them with my great grandma's potato smasher. And when I say attack, I mean it. They get good and squished!
Then after getting the whole lot of grapes squished just right, I put them in a large stock pot, add water until it is just over the grapes, and simmer the whole conglomeration for ten minutes.
Note: The smell during the simmer stage is mesmerizing!
While the grapes are simmering, I get out a piece of cheesecloth, line a colander, sit it over a big bowl, and once the ten minutes of grape simmering has elapsed, pour the whole batch into the cheese cloth.
Then I go to bed.
That's right, I do the whole fresh fruit juice prep part the night before I make the jelly. The grapes strain better if allowed to do so over night. (The whole process maybe takes fifteen to twenty minutes).
In the morning I then grab the cheese cloth and give it a good squeeze to get any remaining juice out. Jelly making is really not complicated, in fact, it's so dang easy compared to other things I do that I am always reminded of how much I like making jelly when I actually get around to making it.
For instance, I have a stove in my garage that I use for canning. Before I start my jelly I go out and place the canner and any jars I am using in the canner with water on high to get it all ready for processing my jars.
Many of my elder relatives just used paraffin wax to seal their jams and jellies, but I am not that brave, I water bath my preserves.
Anyway, while my jars and water are heating, I then get my jelly production space all ready.
I lay out a towel on my counter that I put my processed jars on to cool overnight. I put a small stockpot on the stovetop in the house with my lids and rings in water in it to warm up, I set out another towel for a jar filling area and set my jar grabbers, lid magnet, spoon, stainless steel funnel, and paper towel (for wiping the jar rim before adding the lid) in that area.
Then I get out my largest stock pot, pour the grape juice in it, whisk in the pectin (more on this later), and turn the heat on medium high. While that's getting fired up I measure out the sugar.
And then the jelly-making symphony begins.
Because you see, it all goes rather fast, so mise en place is really, really important in jelly making (well, I find it important in everything kitchen crafting related), because it just makes the process flow better and more enjoyable.
Over the last couple of days I have made two different batches of jelly, once with standard ratios and one lower sugar type. A standard recipe for grape jelly is as follows:
5 cups of fresh grape juice (about 3 1/2-5 pounds of fresh grapes)
7 cups of sugar (YEE!)
1 box of pectinWhisk the pectin into the juice, bring to a hard boil on high heat for a minute, stir in sugar, boil hard for another minute.
Freeze or can.
Okay, there's a bit more to it than that, like doing the whole consistency test with a frozen plate or ice cold spoon. At this point in my life, I have made so much jam and jelly that I sorta just know how long to boil it after I add the sugar for the consistency that I like. It's about 90 seconds.
What made this jelly making endeavor more interesting is that I made a lower sugar batch. That recipe was using these ratios:
5 Cups of fresh grape juice (about 3.5-5 lbs of fresh grapes)
4 cups of sugar
1 box of low or no sugar needed pectin
The process using this lower sugar recipe was the same with regards to prepping the grapes, straining overnight, and then jelly-making gold.
As far as taste goes, both jellies were amazing, but I really, really like the less sugar one because more grape flavor shines through and I don't eat a lot of sugar so it tasted more than sweet to me.
Either way, with the cost of food these days, I am more than elated to have a bunch of pints and half pints of glorious grape jelly now in my larder for the winter. Once of my favorite things ever is to eat a fresh buttermilk biscuit slathered in butter with a big ol dollop of grape jelly spread on the thing. YUM!
And I would love to hear of any of your jelly making experiments. This next week is apple week as I have several hundred pounds of them coming in. Yee haw! Apple butter and cider here we come!
