Muscadine & Scuppernong Jelly

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Have you ever had a muscadine?  How about a scuppernong?  I hadn't either until earlier this week.  John went with my dad to a friends house and he had a full crop of fruit that he wasn't going to harvest.  He told John to help himself, so he came home with a 5 gallon bucket almost full of muscadines and scuppernongs.  

The dark ones are muscadines and the lighter ones are scuppernongs. 

 Muscadines and scuppernongs are wild grapes.  Muscadines are like concord grapes and scuppernongs like white or green grapes.  You don't eat the skin, it is very bitter.  You pop the fruit open and your mouth is filled with a sweet jell like ball, oh, and watch out for the seeds, they are very bitter.  I didn't want to freeze that much fruit so we decided to use the day to make jelly.  We ended up with about 27 jars (mostly 1/2 pints) of delicious jelly.  

 It was a long day, there are many steps in making jelly.  

 We have a lot of jars and have canned many different types of jelly and jam in the past, as well as, tomatoes and lots of pickles a few years back.  One thing that I have definitely learned is that canning in the south, at 232 ft. above sea level is so much easier than at 7500 ft. above sea level at our house in Colorado!  Both batches jelled the first time and all the jars sealed after only a 5 minute water bath.  

 Here are the steps taken to make the jelly. 

Wash the grapes.
Wash the canning jars.
Sterilize the jars, lids and bands. 

Mash the fruit and heat so release the juice from the grapes. 
Strain the juice from the fruit. 
This is the juice before it is cooked.  Add appropriate amount of pectin to 1/4 cup of sugar  and mix with juice in a pot bring to a boil that doesn't stop when stirred.  Add remaining sugar and stir.  Adding enough sugar is key.  The jelly will set better with the appropriate amount of sugar. 
Boil until the jelly reaches the gelling point.
Fill the jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.  The jars will need to be placed in the boiling water, with 2 inches of water covering the jars.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Remove the jars and allow to cool.  
Lots of jelly.  I see one of these being entered in the fair next month. 

 Until we meet again.

Comments

  1. Karen KingSeptember 2, 2012 at 12:02 PM

    This is a great visual! You are creating a fun and interesting blog here!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Danna RabbSeptember 2, 2012 at 1:32 PM

      Thanks Karen, I am glad you are enjoying it. I am having fun writing it.

      Delete

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