Grape Jelly

This was our last weekend of canning for the year.   We have finished squeezing the juice out of the grapes from our small vineyard of gewürztraminer grapes so we can now make grape jelly. Since these are not concord grapes, our grape jelly is golden, not purple.  Looks like honey and just as sweet, too!

As you can see, we get plenty of grapes.  We also get a lot of a variety of white seedless grapes but we eat all those, no problem.  They are so sweet, like little bundles of sugar.

The gewurztraminer grapes are also sweet and delicious to eat but the seeds are a pain so we make jelly out of them.  

 So first we bring them in and wash them, getting them ready to process.

After they are washed and cleaned, we put them through a food mill to remove the skins and seeds.

One end spits out the skins and seeds and the other end is where the juice flows out.  The by-product of all the grapes is this mash of skins and seeds.  I'm sure it's great for the compost.

Then we put the juice in containers and let it settle.  Here's what it looks like before it settles.

After it settles for awhile, it starts to separate.  We make the jelly out of the golden-colored juice.  The green colored pulp-juice is probably some sort of super food…

One batch makes 8 cups of jelly

5 cups of grape juice
2 boxes of pectin
7 cups of sugar

1.  Measure the grape juice into the kettle.

2.  Add the pectin and bring to a full boil. 

3.   Add the sugar and return to a full boil and boil hard for one minute.  

4.  Remove from the stove and let it sit a minute or two.  Now, skim off the foam.

5.  Carefully pour the HOT jelly into your HOT, sterilized jars leaving about 1/4 inch of head space.  

Leaving the correct amount of head space is very important because if you leave too much head space, it may prevent the formation of a vacuum within the jar and this could cause the lid to come unsealed after processing.  Not leaving enough head space may also prevent the lid from sealing because the jelly will not have enough room to expand.


6.  With a damp cloth, wipe off the mouth of each jar.  Put on the HOT lids and caps and return the full jars to the canner to be processed.  

7.  Process for 10 minutes.

You will need to process the full jars longer if you are at a higher elevation, and most commercial pectin's instructions have that information or you can check out my previous post on plum jam.  

8.  At the end of the processing time, carefully remove the jars from the canner using your tongs and allow them to cool.

You will hear the jars seal as they cool as they make a popping sound.  Another way to check the seal is, after they have cooled a little, you can press on the top of the lid and it should be slightly concave.  It should stay that way when pressed.  If you have one or more jars that do not seal or that seal and come unsealed right away, remove the bands and lids, wipe the mouth of the jar with a damp cloth, and put on a new lid (one that has been in hot water) and return to the canner to be reprocessed for another 10 minutes.  (This does not happen frequently.)

Enjoy your delicious golden grape jelly!