The Best Simple Muscadine Jelly Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make jelly step by step? ›

Once the muscadines have softened and smushed, place them in a sieve over a large bowl to drain. Feel free to smush some more here if you don't mind that cooked pulp. If you want a super clear jelly, line the sieve with cheesecloth and let it drain through for several hours until you have a very clear juice.

If you're in a hurry, you can freeze the grapes whole. Wash, drain and package in airtight freezer bags or containers. They will hold a year or longer. Cook and use for jellies and jams.

Ingredients. Substances essential for fruit jelly making are fruit flavor, pectin, sugar, acid and water.

Jellies are produced by extracting the juice from fruits and then adding sugar and lemon juice (or another acid), while pectin is added to help it solidify. Unlike jams, jellies are known for their heightened sweetness, which is achieved by cooking the fruit over low heat for an extended period.

Too little sugar: Much like pectin, some fruits are higher in natural sugar than others. Jams made from fruits with higher sugar content thicken on their own more easily than those with less sugar. A no-sugar or low-sugar recipe might not call for enough sugar to naturally thicken the jam, even at a rolling boil.

Usually that thin, white film is jelled foam. If your fruit was foamy in the sauce pan and you didn't skim the foam off, or if your mixture had a lot of air in it and you didn't do air releasing before putting the jam in the jars, the foam or tiny air bubbles rise to the top of the jar and form that white film.

Pour everything into a damp jelly bag and suspend the bag to drain the juice. The clearest jelly comes from juice that has dripped through a jelly bag without pressing or squeezing. If a fruit press is used to extract the juice, the juice should be restrained through a jelly bag.

The skins are thick, so thick that chewing takes some work, but you can just pierce the skin with your teeth and suck out the rich pulp. Don't forget to spit the seeds. If you can't make wine from them, the next best thing is to make muscadine grape jam.

Grapes are best frozen in syrup, but grapes to be used for juice or jelly can be frozen without sweetening. To freeze grapes: Choose tender skin, firm, sweet grapes with full color and flavor. Sort, remove stems and wash. Leave seedless grapes whole; cut table grapes with seeds in half and remove seeds.

What is the ratio of juice to sugar for jelly? ›

Tip: Low-pectin fruit jelly can be made by combining the low-pectin juice with homemade apple juice—proportioned 1:1, plus ⅔ cup of sugar for each cup of juice. If you are using blueberries or strawberries, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every 2 cups of jelly juice.

Directions. Combine fruit and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, mashing occasionally with a potato masher, until fruit is very soft, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to a fine sieve set over a heatproof bowl; let drain without pressing on fruit, 4 hours.

Fruit Jelly means the product prepared by boiling fruit juice or fruit (s) of sound quality, with or without water, expressing and straining the juice, adding nutritive sweeteners, and concentrating to such a consistency that gelatinization takes place on cooling.

Place a rack in the bottom of a pot, then fill halfway with water, cover and bring to a gentle boil. Using a jar lifter, lower the sealed jars into the pot. The water must cover the jars by 1 inch (add boiling water, if needed). Cover the pot and process according to the recipe's directions.

Fill jars quickly with hot jelly or jam mixture, leaving a quarter-inch of headspace. Wipe the top of the jars and sealing surface, with clean paper towel to remove jelly, jam or sugar crystals. Place a two-piece lid on the jar and hand tighten the ring. Load filled jars one at a time into the canner.