Grape Jelly Recipe

[LovetoLearn]

I have a friend that has loads and loads of Mustang Grapes on his land and he does not want them.

I am looking for a recipe for a homemade jelly using these grapes. Has anyone ever tried this? Do you know of a recipe?

I am looking forward to trying this.

[Pamzilla1]

I haven't made jelly with these grapes but I have made wine. The grapes are very tart and I assume you would need lots of sugar to make them taste good.

Please be careful handling these grapes. They will burn your skin. I think it is the tanin in the skins.

[LovetoLearn]

I picked about 2.5 gallons of grapes from my friends farm a few days ago and made 6 jars of jelly.

Since I grew up in the woods, you might say, I have a natural resistance most plant problems such a poison vines (poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, etc.) as well as mosquitoes, so the tannins do not bother me, only the stains that berries such as dewberries, blueberries, grapes, etc., etc. leave. :wink: :wink:

Actually, the garlic and peppers when I make garlic/pepper tea make me more irritated but my aloe vera makes a quick cure for that.

The jelly I made was quite sweet as I had followed one of the few recipes that I had found on the internet. But, as I continue to make jelly, I am sure that I can hone the recipe to my own taste, i.e. reducing the sugar, adding just a bit more pectin for a thicker jelly, etc.

I had always heard and experienced tart mustang and muscadine grapes but I have found that if you just put them on the counter and let them sit a few days that they will get alot sweeter.

I am going to try and make some dewberry jelly next spring as I have found several spots for picking wilds ones locally that few are willing to bear the mosquitoes to get to. :D

[pakin]

I'll be interested to learn how the dewberry jelly turns out. I usually freeze my berries, but this spring I needed to clear out my freezer and canned the dewberries. I tried to make jelly out of some, but didn't have luck with them setting.

Do you have a recipe? I just used a recipe for some other berry. Maybe that's my problem.

pakin

[LovetoLearn]

I used a recipe that I found on the internet. It turned out too sweet and not quite enough pectin but at least it is a start.

Next time I will just reduce the sugar and add another half box pectin or maybe even another whole box. Sooner or later I will get it down right.

The recipe was as follows:

Remove stems of approximately 4-5 pounds of mustang grapes. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a heat in large pot and simmer 5 minutes. Sieve to remove seeds and hulls.

Jelly
6 cups prepared juice
1 box powdered fruit pectin
In large pot, bring to a full boil, the grape juice and pectin.
Add 7 cups of sugar
Bring to a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down
Boil 1 minute
Remove from heat
Pour into jars, put on lids and rings.
Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath


I did not do the last line but I don't think that affected it that much.
Next time I will add another box of pectin and cut down on the sugar, but for right now, the jelly is pretty good for a first timer. :)