Grape jelly/jam?

[Bettacreek]

While bear hunting, we found a nice patch of wild grapes. I plan to harvest a bunch of them later today or tomorrow, but I have never made or canned jams/jellies. I've helped my mother, but I was way too young to remember much of anything. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[patandchickens]

This time of year you may find they are a bit low in pectin (due to being "quite" ripe); if you do not want an element of uncertainty as to whether you'll end up with jam or syrup, it might be worth using commercial pectin, in which case just follow the directions on the package insert.

If you don't mind potentially ending up with syrup, you can try to work with whatever pectin is left in the grapes, there may be enough. In this case you would use an old-timey "boil the juice with sugar til it passes a jelling test" method, then put in jars and process and hope it thickens enough when it cools.

The main advantages of using only the existing pectin in the grapes are a) you use a little less sugar that way; b) you don't have to buy pectin; and c) you can make a small batch, which because wild grapes [if these are like fox grapes, type of thing] do not taste the same as cultivated grapes, might be advantageous so you can see if you *like* the product

OTOH using Certo or other commercial pectin makes it a rather surer bet, if you want to make sure the result sets well. Also it does not require any expertise at jelling point tests, which IMO are not quite as straightforward and unambiguous as books make it sound (though it is *really* useful to get comfortable with them, it does take a bit of a learning curve).

Either way, by all means go do something with the grapes!

Good luck, have fun,

Pat