Grape King Jelly!

A couple of weeks ago we had ventured into town to go to the Farmer's Market off Richmond (in between Kirby and Buffalo Speedway.) This had been after two weekend trip to other so called farmer's markets that really weren't farmer's markets at all. We were buying something! Anything! We actually bought a lot. But we got sucked into buying three jar of jellies. Now the pumpkin jam was amazing, but the others were sub par.

Now Chef Blackheart, in his OCD, checked the label to see if there were only natural ingredients. Preservatives! On no! High fructose syrup! Not in my kiddos' jelly! And so in the middle of the night, last night, Chef Blackheart became the Grape Jelly King.

We used the Better Homes and Gardens recipe and Ball canning jars. It was not that easy. Mostly the peeling of grapes was the large time consumer, but if you ask Chef Steve, it was so worth it.

Grape Jam Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 lbs Dark Grapes
1 cups water
2 1/4 cups table sugar

Tools needed:

Recipe:

Colander
10 quart kettle or pot with lid
paring knife
measuring cup
metal spoon
sieve
ladle

Canning:
Large Pot with lid or boiling water cannery
3 (8 oz) mason jars with lids
canning prongs and de-bubbler (optional)

Is everyone ready to make some jam!?

First things first, wash hands, wash grapes.

Then start the fun process of peeling the skins off half the grapes. Save your skins for later.

Glad it was him not me... I know I'm rotten.

Now in the 8-10 quart kettle, combine the skinned and unskinned grapes.

Cook for 10 minutes or until very soft

Press grapes through a sieve. (we don't own a sieve, so we just used our colander, it seem to work well enough.) Catch the strained pulp.

Chunk the cooked skins and the seeds (if you use grapes with seeds.)

Measure 1 1/2 cups of strained pulp. Return to the kettle.

Cook covered for 10 minutes
Uncover and stir in the sugar (2 1/4 cups)

Bring mixture to a full boil
Start boiling the water boiling cannery or a large pot with lid. (Enough water to have about an 1" of water over the jar when placed in the water.)

Boil uncovered for 12 minutes or until mixture sheets off a metal spoon

Remove kettle from heat and quickly skim off foam with a metal spoon. (We were exhausted at this point, considering it was midnight and our bedtime is 8:30 pm. So we're missing pretty much the rest of the photos.)

Ladle the jelly into sterilized 1/2 pint canning jars. 

Leave 1/4" headspace in the jar. 

Use the de-bubbler to get most of the air out of the mixture.

Wipe jar rims and adjust lids to hand tight.

Place the canning jars into the large pot with lid.

We broke our extra-large lid, so we used a George Foreman Grill attachment. Improvise!

Let the jars sit in the water boiling cannery or large pot for 5 minutes (start timing when the water begins to boil again.)

Remove with the canning tongs.

Let cans cool on wire until they set. (We just let them sit overnight.)

If they don't seal, put them in the fridge and use right away.

Ours set, even just using the large pot. :)

Enjoy your homemade jelly!

Rose loved it! Ryan loved it too, but Chef Blackheart took that pic, so I haven't been able to upload it yet.