How To Make Grape Jelly

Ingredients:

Grapes
sugar
pectin

Gather up your grapes. Here is my grapevine:

Step 1:

They taste great but have many seeds.

Step 2:

Add a little water and heat and the cooking and mashing begins.

Step 3:

After simmering for 15 minutes:

Step 4:

I roughly strained them. They will be strained through a fine mesh tomorrow.

Step 5:

Finished for tonight. Tomorrow the actual canning begins.

Step 6:

These are the tartarate crystals that will ruin your jelly if you don't let it sit overnight. I strained it through some cheese cloth to remove these crunchy bits.

Step 7:

The jelly jars and lids have to be sterile so they get boiled while the grape juice cooks.

Step 8:

There is a lot going on in this pic. I have already added the pectin which will act as a jelling agent. I had a little over 4 cups of grape juice so i added 5 cups of sugar. I would bring the mixture to a boil then slowly add a cup of sugar then bring it slowly back to a boil.

Step 9:

This must be stirred constantly. This was the worst part because it was hot and the fumes from the grape juice were nearly overpowering even with the downdraft range.

Step 10:

No pics of the pouring process since I needed all hands and attention on the process. I'm sure you have all experienced the jelly donut microwave syndrome... where the jelly gets superheated and will melt your skin off if you touch it? Anyway I was dealing with a large saucepan full of that stuff, and if it hits you it will stick and keep burning for a while so i was extra careful. The jelly is in the jars and sitting in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Step 11:

All finished:

Step 12:

As soon as it cools it will turn to jelly:

Step 13:

Close up shot of it on bread: