I had so much fun making this! This is the first time we’ve experienced picking muscadines and I am so glad we have them! As soon as I saw we had muscadines on the property I wanted to make jelly and wine. I haven’t started on the wine yet, but I did make jelly! After picking well over 5 gals I knew I would have plenty to experiment on.
Below you will find my first attempt to making jelly. It was super simple but tasted great! All I needed was some fresh bread or biscuits and boy oh boy we would have been set!!
Ingredients:
- 4 lbs of Muscadine Grapes (I used about 12 cups)
- 1 1.75 oz pk of Sure Jell Pectin
- 6 cups of Sugar
- 1/2 tsp of butter
- pinch of salt
- canning jars (I used 12 4oz jars and 1 pint jar it’s just what I had on hand)
- potato masher
- large pot to boil
- wire mesh strainer
Directions:
- First I sanitized the jars. I cheated- I was a bit intimidated by sterilizing jars; something about boiling hot water, hot sugary liquid, and glass make me nervous. So I googled an alternative sterilization method and found you can sterilized them in the oven. The proper way is obviously to boil them and if you’re brave enough, go for it! If you’re a wimp like me, heat the jars in the oven at 225 Fahrenheit for at least 15 minutes and leave them in there until you are filling them with your jelly. They will be pretty hot so use a dish towel to handle them when filling.
- Put the grapes and about 2 cups of water into a large pot, 5 quarts or larger, on the stove over high heat. Bring to a boil and continue for 10 minutes, stirring often.
- After the 10 mins comes the fun part, mash them grapes! I used the potato masher on the grapes for 10 mins and stirred frequently. This step is SO important. You’ll want to make sure the Muscadines are crushed very well. This will make the rest of the process so much easier. After you’ve brought the fruit to a rolling boil, simmer on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally and I smashed again (a total of 10-20mins boiling)
- Empty the pot through a coarse-mesh strainer into a large bowl, then use a spoon to force the grapes through the sieve. Discard any remaining solids. Pour the reserved liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into another bowl, again discarding the solids.
- Once the dripping stopped I gently pushed on the fruit until I had 5 cups of juice and poured the juice back into the large pot.
- Stir 1 pack of Sure Jell fruit pectin into the prepared juice. If desired, add 1/2 tsp of butter to reduce foaming. I did this and I think it helped.
- Bring mixture to a full rolling boil on high heat stirring constantly (a rolling boil is one that doesn’t stop when you stir it).
- Once mixture comes to a full rolling boil, add sugar and a pinch of salt, return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute. This is where your Muscadine Jelly will start looking like jelly.
- Remove pot from heat and skim off any foam with a metal spoon.
- Immediately ladle juice into jars filling them nearly full (you’ll want to leave about 1/4″ space). Wipe the rims and sides of jars. Cover with lids and rings and tighten. All that’s left is letting the jars of jelly cool and then enjoy! You should refrigerate the jelly and use it within three months.
