Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Need Help With Making Jelly

Need some help with jelly. Did it once before and things turned out great. Cannot find the recipe I used.

Have a bunch of wild grapes I picked today. Seem to be concords gone wild as there are bigger than any others I have found and rather sweet. They are on average about nickle size.

Anyways I am lazy right now so want to juice them. Freeze the juice jelly later. Recipes I have found are straight forward five cups juice seven cups sugar pack of sure jel.

The sticking point is making the juice. Cannot find any set amount of water to grapes to use to cook the grapes down.

Just need a simple X cups water to X cups of grapes to get things going.

Thanks.

mike7mm08- Don't add water. You just use the juice or you will end up with pancake and waffle syrup. Add a bit more(about 1/3cup) juice to the pan to heat so if it reduces you have enough. Also don't short the sugar or you will also get syrup. I add a 1/4 more surejell than their recipe calls for so I get jelly and jam that doesn't drip off the bread.- Mike

I recall the recipe I used called for some water. Also all the online recipes call for some water. Just afraid if I cook the grapes for ten to fifteen minutes to help break them down I might get the juice too concentrated.

I have never added water when boiling down fruit for jelly.

Add me to the list saying don't add water. If you believe you need more liquid before you start to cook down your grapes just use a potato masher to squish them up a little in the pot before starting.

You can add just a touch of distilled water to make out a cooking if you have to. Better to use just a bit of Welches grape juice though.

Follow the sure jell recipe EXACTLY and you'll make good jelly.

I have used just a bit of water when boiling grapes to get the juice out. Something like 1/2 cup to several cups of grapes. Always figured it pretty much evaporated while I simmered the grapes, and it made good jelly in the end. Got a bunch of juice from this year's crop in the freezer, a little rainy day project once the winter weather sets in!

helps a lot to have a good thermometer. Temp has to be just right, for it to work.

Mike- I think these guys are giving you very good advice. I would use a collander and mash the grapes down and strain the juice out first. A potato masher works also if you don't have the funnel shaped strainer.-Mike

I've made jelly a grand total of twice.

This year I made 30 pints of blackberry and 20 pints of raspberry. With both I added a few cups of water to the pot when I was starting the cooking process. Just felt like I should??? After juicing then, when I needed a couple cups to make the recipe come out, I just added some store bought grape juice. Grandma always added apple juice. With wild grapes shed cut the juice with apple juice to make it go farther. Said the wild grapes were strong enough to not need pure juice.