Growing up my sister and I played in a grape vine with the neighborhood kids. Just smelling concord grapes instantly sends us both back to being kids. The smell is intoxicating, and that is why I planted two concord vines when we moved into this house a few years ago. One took off last year and gave us 11 clusters of grapes – which were quickly enjoyed or frozen for later. This year, the same vine is massive and in an epic battle with a squash plant. It’s overloaded with grapes – and I had to pick them a bit earlier than planned to save the grapes from the squash battle and the birds. This left with piles of grapes, and way too many to enjoy in one sitting, or freeze in easy to use packages. Instead, I decided to make jelly with our favorite grapes.
I’ll admit, normally I make jams instead of jelly just because I hate the straining process. However, concord grapes have a large seed in the center. We want the dark purple tone from the skins in the jelly, so I leave them intact while processing and strain the skin and the seeds out later. Also, you may notice that there are some green grapes in the mix too – the skins aren’t ripe yet, but they are soft and taste delicious. I couldn’t let good fruit go to waste!
Ingredients
8 cups Concord Grapes – Washed and removed from stems- 4 cups Sugar
- 1 box of Pectin
- 2 cups Sugar
Instructions:
- Place 8 clean 8 oz mason jars on a rack in your stock pot. (I used 4 16 oz jars – always prepare 1 extra jar and lid set than the recipe requires, trust me you will appreciate that if you mess one up!) Fill the jars and stock pot with cool water until it completely covers the top of the jars. Cover and put on medium heat. Simmer but do not boil.
- Prepare 8 lid sets, put the bands aside and put the flat lids in a small sauce pan and put on medium heat. Do not boil, but keep warm through the whole process.
- Measure out your sugar and put in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Keep in mind you will need to keep the two parts of sugar separate!
- Take your clean grapes and put them in a medium sized stainless steel saucepan with your 4 cups of sugar. Using a potato masher, squash the grapes and mix in the sugar. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Mix constantly until it is incorporated into the mixture.
- Using cheesecloth, strain your grape mixture until you get all of the juice you created out of it. Strain into a clean bowl and when you’ve got all the juice from the mixture, return to a clean sauce pan. Add in your pectin and cook over medium heat until you reach a rolling boil. Add in your last 2 cups of sugar.
- Return it to a rolling boil that doesn’t stop while you stir. This may take 5-10 minutes to get to, but keep stirring. Once it reaches that point, remove from heat and skim any of the foam off the top.
- Now, remove the jars from the warm bath. Tip them as you pull them out and pour the water back into the pan. Place them on a towel on the counter with the opening up. Do not dry them! Just put them down and put the funnel in. Ladel the hot jelly into each jar until there is about 1/4 inch of space in the top. Once all jars are full, take a plastic or wooden utensil and move it around to get extra air bubbles out.
- Take the small magnet tool and remove flat lids from their hot bath. Place over top of each jar. By hand screw on the collars, but not too tight! Remember some air still needs to get out of each jar.
- Place the jars back into the hot stock pot and replace the lid. Turn your temperature up to high. When it starts to do a rolling boil, start a timer for 10 minutes.
- After the jars have processed for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the lid to the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes. Remove all the jars without tipping them and place them back on the towel. Remember – don’t towel them off!
Concord Grape Jelly Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 cups Concord Grapes - Washed and removed from stems
- 4 cups Sugar
- 1 box of Pectin
- 2 cups Sugar
Instructions
- Place 8 clean 8 oz mason jars on a rack in your stock pot. (I used 4 16 oz jars – always prepare 1 extra jar and lid set than the recipe requires, trust me you will appreciate that if you mess one up!) Fill the jars and stock pot with cool water until it completely covers the top of the jars. Cover and put on medium heat. Simmer but do not boil.
- Prepare 8 lid sets, put the bands aside and put the flat lids in a small sauce pan and put on medium heat. Do not boil, but keep warm through the whole process.
- Measure out your sugar and put in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Keep in mind you will need to keep the two parts of sugar separate!
- Take your clean grapes and put them in a medium sized stainless steel saucepan with your 4 cups of sugar. Using a potato masher, squash the grapes and mix in the sugar. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Mix constantly until it is incorporated into the mixture.
- Using cheesecloth, strain your grape mixture until you get all of the juice you created out of it. Strain into a clean bowl and when you've got all the juice from the mixture, return to a clean sauce pan. Add in your pectin and cook over medium heat until you reach a rolling boil. Add in your last 2 cups of sugar.
- Return it to a rolling boil that doesn’t stop while you stir. This may take 5-10 minutes to get to, but keep stirring. Once it reaches that point, remove from heat and skim any of the foam off the top.
- Now, remove the jars from the warm bath. Tip them as you pull them out and pour the water back into the pan. Place them on a towel on the counter with the opening up. Do not dry them! Just put them down and put the funnel in. Ladel the hot jelly into each jar until there is about 1/4 inch of space in the top. Once all jars are full, take a plastic or wooden utensil and move it around to get extra air bubbles out.
- Take the small magnet tool and remove flat lids from their hot bath. Place over top of each jar. By hand screw on the collars, but not too tight! Remember some air still needs to get out of each jar.
- Place the jars back into the hot stock pot and replace the lid. Turn your temperature up to high. When it starts to do a rolling boil, start a timer for 10 minutes.
- After the jars have processed for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the lid to the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes. Remove all the jars without tipping them and place them back on the towel. Remember – don’t towel them off!
Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by Yummly Rich Recipes
https://week99er.com/new/concord-grape-jelly-recipe/
