Small Batch Canning - Homemade Grape Jelly from Grape Juice

How do you go from grape juice to homemade grape jelly?  It's easier than you think!  Last Wednesday, I picked up a bottle of concord grape juice at Harris Teeter Super Doubles for $1.29 after coupon. The kids don't care much for grape juice, but they love grape jelly.  So, I set about to turn my juice into jelly.

To make my grape jelly, I used this recipe from the Sure-Jell website:

Homemade Grape Jelly

yield 6 - 7 half pint jars

3 cups grape juice (the juice I used contained no HFCS, but that's a personal preference)
1 cup water
1 - 2 boxes Sure-Jell pectin (the recipe calls for 1 box, but I ended up using 1/2 of a second box)
1/2 tsp butter
4-1/2 cups sugar

 Add grape juice and water to a 6 to 8 quart pot.  Add pectin to the juice mixture.  Then add butter (it reduces foaming).  Bring to a full rolling boil (a boil that can't be stirred down).  Add sugar and return mixture to a rolling boil.  Boil for 1 minute while stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and skim off any foam with a metal spoon.    

Ladle mixture into prepared canning jars and process in a water bath for 5 minutes.  To prepare the canning jars, I followed the instructions in the guide book from my Ball Discovery Home Canning kit.  The kit comes with canning instructions, recipes, jars and a canning rack with lifter basket that can be used in any large pot.  Great for beginners - like me!  You can also find  instructions on the Ball website. 

I let my jars sit out overnight to cool.  When I picked one of the jars up this morning, it seemed to have set pretty well.  I just ran out of store bought jelly this morning while making the kids' school lunches.  So, I'll be testing out one of the homemade jars in the very near future.  I'll let you how the end result turned out! 

Mary Ellen

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