Green Grape Jelly - First recipe post!

Finally my very first recipe post! I've always been a girly girl. I work with flowers almost everyday, have a huge doll collection, enjoys sewing and knitting, and I used to do a lot of arts and crafts. However in terms of cooking, I never really got into it until a few months ago. There's so many fun and delicious recipes out there that I want to try! Its very rewarding too when the recipe's a success! and of course that makes my tummy satisfied too. =) A lot of the recipes that I will be posting here are modified versions of other recipes that I came across. Of course there will be ones that I put together. =)

Couple days ago I made a batch of green grape jelly and thought it'll be a great first recipe post. I love green grapes a lot but I never seem to find green grape jam anywhere. I thought maybe I can try making some. I've seen different youtube tutorial videos and recipes on different websites on how to make grape jelly. It seems like everyone has their own way of making jam but the ratio of the ingredients are pretty much the same. The following recipe was how I made my batch.

Green Grape Jelly Recipe 

Ingredients:

6 lbs of green grapes (5 cups of grape juice is needed)

7 cups of sugar

1 box of pectin (powder)

8 x 250ml canning jars (with snap lids and rings)

Helpful utensils/equipment: 

potato masher

funnel

jar lifter

canning rack system

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 200F. Turn off oven once preheated. Prepare a small pot of warm-hot water. (not boiling)

2. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water. Place only the jars onto a baking pan. Insert the whole thing into the oven to sterilize the jars. Place the lids and rings into the pot of water. Set aside.

3. Remove the stems and wash the grapes thoroughly. Place grapes in a big pot and cook under medium heat. During this time, use a potato masher and crush the grapes to extract as much juice as possible. The ultimate goal is to extract 5 cups of grape juice.

After a couple of minutes of intense smashing, the grapes will look like this:

 

Let it bring to a boil. Cover with lid and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

4. Using a strainer, strain the grapes to get 5 cups of grape juice.

5.  Place the 5 cups of grape juice back to the pot. Turn on the stove to medium heat. Add a pack of pectin. Mix and bring it to a boil. Add 7 cups of sugar.

Stir slowly till sugar dissolves. The juice mixture will become darker in color. Bring it to a boil again and cook for about a minute. Turn off the heat.

6. Take the jars out from the oven. Be careful the jars will be hot! Using a funnel, transfer the mixture into the jars, leaving about 1cm gap from the top. Clean the edges of the jars. Take out the lids and rings from the warm water and close up the jars tightly.

7. Now we are going to give the jars a nice hot bath. Pour about 2-3 inches of water in a large pot. Turn the stove on high heat. It will be useful if you have a canning rack system and/or a jar lifter at this point.

Place no more than 4 jars in the pot at a time. Leave them in the pot for 5 minutes. You may hear some popping sound from the lids. It's normal. Place the jars on a cooling rack after 5 mins. Finish the rest of the jars then let them cool off overnight. Test the jars to see if they are sealed properly by pressing down the middle of the jar lid. If it doesn't pop back up, then its good!

That's it! Store the jars in a cool place, and enjoy! =)

*NOTES

* The recipes I've seen all called for different amount of grapes needed for the 5 cups of grape juice. I bought 8 lbs of grapes but ended up using 6 lbs instead. 

* Use only the fresh firm grapes.

* There are kits available online that comes with special canning funnel, strainer, etc. I didn't feel the need to buy all these extra stuff. I used a regular funnel and strainer. However, a jar lifter was very useful.

* The lids can only be used once. The rings and jars can be reused. You can buy the lids separately.