Grape Jelly

A few weeks ago a friend of ours gave us a big bunch of grapes. I was thinking of using half of it to make some grape jelly, but they were so good we ended up eating them all, so when I was at the supermarket today and came across cheap grapes, I decided to pick them up. They were at the very peak of ripeness so they weren't too expensive. I ended up buying about a pound of grapes to use for this project.

The jelly I made came out really good. Its very solid and tastes really good.

First you need to make grape juice.
All you need is 1lb (500gs)or more of grapes

Wash your grapes well, then put the grapes in a sauce pan, mash a little bit, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water, and boil for around 10 minutes. Strain this mixture through a colander and cheesecloth and collect the juice.

I ended up with around a cup and a half, so I made a half cup of apple juice by boiling some extra apple skins and cores I had from another project. In total I ended up with a scant two cups of juice.

While I made the jelly I started two jars sterilizing in another pan. I had two cups juice, so I made one jar plus a bit.

For every one cup of juice, use 2/3 cups sugar. Since I ended up using a 1/2 cup apple juice, I also added a teaspoon of lemon juice.

I used:
1 1/2 cups Grape juice
1/2 cup Apple juice
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tsp Lemon juice

Bring this to a boil and cook for around 20 minutes. The jelly needs to reach between 104~105 degrees C to activate the pectin. If you have a thermometer, you can use it to check the temperature. If you don't, use a fork. Once it has reached the jelly point, it will pour off the fork much like honey. My jelly never got above 100 degrees, but using a fork I could tell it had reached jellying point.

I poured the jelly into jars, I had one jar to seal, so sealed it in a water bath for 10 minutes. If your not sure on this method check out my blog post on the subject.

I am a big fan of making jelly or jam using the pectin that is naturally occurring in the fruit. I was actually a bit surprised at how well this came out. It is definitely very well jelled.