Jammin’ The Juice

Dadda’s homegrown Grape Jelly

This photo may be a couple of seasons old now, but our grape vine yielded plenty of grape juice last autumn. In an earlier entry I explained how the grapes were picked and juiced, so I won’t repeat myself. But please note that the juice was boiled / pasteurised and immediately frozen. It’s ruby red colour makes this jelly look a little like my homemade crabapple! Hence my confusions of last week! So here we go!

Grape Jelly

Ingredients:

1ltr Grape Juice (Welche’s brand is fine)

100ml Lemon Juice

500g Apple Pulp (passed through a sieve)

1.5kg sugar

Method;

Sterilise your jam jars, jam funnel and ladle in your dishwasher. Place all of the ingredients into a heavy saucepan and bring to a rapid boil, stirring occasionally. Skim occasionally with a metal spoon and a small bowl. Boil for 20 minutes. Check your gel with your wooden spoon! On this occasion I might just do the ‘old fashioned’ droplet of liquid jelly onto a cold plate chilled in the freezer, as you want to be sure of the guaranteed set before you jar up. Let it cool and test it with a spoon or your finger by pushing through the droplet and seeing if the mixture stands up on its own! Once confident of the set, pour into your jars with your funnel, leaving the obligatory 8mm space below the lid. Secure your lids tightly and resterilise for 20 minutes in a large pan or a steamer.

This amount of ingredients made only 7 x 320ml jars due to evaporation.

This is a great tasting jelly. In fact, I admire above most others! The flavour is delicate, yet complex. A true king of jams! Enjoy…