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Last year we were hit with Hurricane Irma pretty hard. We were without power for a week and the hurricane winds brought a lot of trees down around our farm, but it wasn’t all bad. Those strong winds also dropped 1-1/2 gallons of perfect wild Muscadines. My husband usually climbs trees near our house (we really need to plant some), for us to eat every year, but it’s never nearly enough to make anything with. Hurricane Irma blessed us with more than enough Muscadines, so I froze the berries until I decided what I wanted to do with them. Recently I made some homemade white grape jelly and I loved it so much I wanted to finally unfreeze those beauties and make some Muscadine Jelly!
First thing before you begin making Muscadine Jelly you’ll want to have everything ready. I sterilized my jars, lids, and rings. I like to do this in the dishwasher because I know it’s sterilized, but you can also boil water and sterilize them that way for about 10-15 minutes.
Materials – I linked everything below, just click on the name of the item.
- Jars. I used 8oz canning jars. I think this size works the best for jelly and jams.
- Cheesecloth. I had a hard time finding this in the store because it wasn’t with the canning stuff. I finally found it in the cloth section.
- Preserving Canning Pot – The one I linked is similar to the one I used. I linked a set because you’ll need the rack and jar lifters.
- Large sauce pan
Ingredients
- 3-1/2 lbs of Muscadines. I don’t have a kitchen scale, although I found I really need one. You can measure it out by getting on scales at home and weighed yourself, then weighed yourself again holding the muscadines and subtract the difference. I added and subtracted Muscadines until I had 3-1/2 lbs.
- 7 cups of Sugar **EXACT AMOUNT**
- Sure Jell Fruit Pectin
Directions
- First thing I did was make sure all of my jars, lids, and rings were thoroughly sanitized. I ended up using 11 8oz jars for canning Muscadine Jelly. It’s also a good idea to go ahead and have the correct amount of water in the canner already heating (be sure to remove the canning rack so you can drop your jars down in the water). The water has to cover the jars by 1-2 inches.
- Preparation of the Muscadines depends on if you are using frozen or fresh. If you’re using fresh you’ll want to wash the Muscadines in a strainer, but if you’re using frozen you’ll want to preserve any juice that’s already come out of the fruits so you do not want to wash them (hopefully you did that before you put them in the freezer).
- Add Muscadines and 1-1/2 cups of water to the pot. Stir and bring to a boil. While your Muscadines are heating, crush them with either a potato masher or I used the bottom side of a jelly jar. This step is SO important. You’ll want to make sure the Muscadines are crushed very well. This will make the rest of the process so much easier. After you’ve brought the fruit to a rolling boil, simmer on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
- While the Muscadines are cooking, go ahead and cut three pieces of your cheesecloth to fit the large bowl. Place them in the bottom of the bowl and dampen them. Once the fruit is cooked, add the cooked fruit to the bowl. Tie the cheese cloth (I made two separate knots) and hang to let juice drip into the bowl until dripping stops. I found it easiest to hang the cheesecloth on my cabinet pulls, but something else may work better for you. Once the dripping stopped I gently pushed on the fruit until I had 5 cups of juice. If you don’t have 5 cups, you can add 1/2 cup of water. This is where I had the most trouble. It was hard for me to get exactly 5 cups of juice so I ended up having 4 cups of juice and 1 cup of water. The recipe called for only adding 1/2 cup of water; however, I just couldn’t get more juice out no matter how hard I tried!
- Measure 5 cups of juice and put in the large sauce pan (what I call a boiling pot).
- Measure out EXACTLY 7 cups of sugar and set aside.
- Stir 1 pack of Sure Jell fruit pectin into the prepared juice. If desired, add 1/2 tsp of butter to reduce foaming. I did this and I think it helped.
- Bring mixture to a full rolling boil on high heat stirring constantly (a rolling boil is one that doesn’t stop when you stir it).
- Once mixture comes to a full rolling boil, add sugar and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Once mixture hits a rolling boil, boil for exactly 1 minute, again stirring constantly. This is where your Muscadine Jelly will start looking like jelly.
- Remove pot from heat and skim off any foam with a metal spoon.
- Immediately ladle juice into jars filling them nearly full (you’ll want to leave about 1/4″ space). Wipe the rims and sides of jars. Cover with lids and rings and tighten. Place the jars on the canning rack and lower rack into canner. The water has to cover the jars by 1-2 inches. Canning time differs by what altitude you live in. I live in Georgia and our altitude is around 5,000 so I cooked them for 15 minutes. I’ve added the chart below. After caning, remove jars and put them on a towel upright. After the jars completely seal, check each lid to make sure it sealed by pressing the center of the lid. If the lid pops back it’s not sealed properly and must be refrigerated.
- Jars should sit at room temperature for 24 hours to set. If your jars sealed the jelly can sit unopened in a cool, dry, dark place for 1 year. Refrigerate any opened jelly or jars that didn’t seal for up to 3 weeks.
- Altitude chart:
- 1,000-3,000 – 10 minutes canning time
- 3,001-6,000 – 15 minutes canning time
- 6,001-8,000 – 20 minutes canning time
- 8,001-10,000- 25 minutes canning time
- When canning is complete remove jars and place on a towel to cool. Once cooled, check for any jars that didn’t seal. Refrigeration is required if any jars didn’t seal properly.
It seems like a lot, but canning Muscadine Jelly is simple. Sterilizing the jars, rings, and lids took me the longest. I’m thinking of gifting these for Christmas gifts this year! I love homemade gifts and what better way to give a gift than to give homemade Muscadine Jelly made right from my kitchen and picked right from our back yard! Muscadines are my favorite fruit and this is the best jelly I’ve ever tasted in my life!!
