Delicious home canned grape jelly from white (aka green) grapes.
It has a lovely, light, warm colour which makes it perfect to use as a glaze on items such as pork chops, pork roast, fish, or even a cake.
You can make this using sugar or the sweetener of your choice.
You need to start this recipe several hours or a day ahead in order to allow juice to slowly drip undisturbed off the fruit.
See also: Grape Jelly (made from purple grapes)
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either 125 ml (½ cup / 4 oz) OR quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)
Processing method: Water bath or steam canning
Yield: 4 x quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars
Headspace: 1 cm (¼ inch)
Processing time: Either size jar 10 minutes
White Grape Jelly
Ingredients
- 2 kg grapes (Green grapes. 4 lbs.)
- 125 ml water (½ cup / 4 oz)
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice (bottled. 2 oz / 60 ml)
- 4 teaspoons calcium water (20 ml)
- 200 g sugar (sugar. 1 cup / 8 oz)
- 4 teaspoons Pomona Pectin
Instructions
- Wash grapes. Remove stems.
- Put grapes in a pan with the water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Lower heat to a simmer, then cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat, mash the grapes.
- Put mashed fruit in a jelly bag.
- Let drip for 2 to 4 hours, or overnight.
- Measure how much juice you got. You need 1 litre (4 cups / 32 oz) of juice. If you didn't end up with that, see notes below.
- Put the juice in a pot.
- LIQUID SWEETENERS (HONEY, AGAVE, LIQUID STEVIA, ETC): See special directions below before proceeding further.
- DRY SWEETENERS (SUGAR, SPLENDA, POWDERED STEVIA, ETC): Mix the pectin powder with the sugar in a small bowl or a measuring cup, set aside. Add the lemon juice and the calcium water to the pot. Bring pot contents to a boil, then add pectin mixture.
- ALL SWEETENERS: When pot returns to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Skim surface scum off OR if desired strain again one last time through a jelly bag.
- Ladle into 125 ml (4 oz) or quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz) jars.
- Leave 1 cm (¼ inch) headspace.
- Debubble, adjust headspace if needed.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process jars for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
Nutrition
Liquid sweetener directions (agave, honey, liquid stevia, etc.)
- Bring the juice back to a boil, either in a pot or in a microwave. (Mind the surge when removing from microwave.)
- Put half of the heated juice into a blender, along with the pectin, and blend carefully (cover top of blender with a towel to prevent hot surge. (See recipe notes below if multiplying the batch.)
- Put the blender mixture in a pot.
- Put the rest of the juice in the blender, whiz it to pick up more of the pectin with the same towel safety precaution, and pour that into pot. (The two steps help to get most of the pectin out of the blender.)
- Bring pot to a boil. Add the lemon juice, calcium water, and the liquid sweetener.
- Bring back to a boil, follow canning directions above.
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.
Information about Pomona pectin.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
Recipe notes
- SWEETENER: Instead of sugar, you could use ½ cup Splenda. OR 125 ml honey (½ cup / 4 oz), OR 1 teaspoon of liquid stevia OR another sweetener au choix, with quantities determined by you.
- How much sweetener you need will depend on the tastes of your crowd and how sweet / tart that particular batch of grapes was.
- If you use sugar, you can actually technically reduce the sugar as desired — Pomona pectin does not depend on any sweetener to set.
- Because this is made with Pomona Pectin, you can double or triple the batch as desired with no ill-effect on the set of the jelly.
- Pomona pectin comes with a small pouch of powdered calcium for you to mix with water to make calcium water.
- The pectin powder will clump if you just mix it straight into the mixture; that’s why you mix it with something first.
- Use something like a potato masher to mash with, not a blender or a food processor: the blades will affect the set of the jelly.
- Short of juice? Put the drained fruit pulp into a microwave-safe jug. Stir in a little extra water. Mash again. Boil in microwave for a few minutes (or you can do this in a pot on the stove.) Then put back into jelly bag to drain.
- Though store-bought white grape juice is clear, your homemade juice almost certainly won’t be. You can try straining it a second time through a jelly bag, but that will likely be of limited use.
- Don’t use a whisk to stir the jelly in the pot with, or it will create a lot of undesirable froth.
Recipe Source
Grape Jelly. In: Duffy, Allison Carroll. Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin. Beverly, MA: Fair Winds Press. 2013. Page 86.
We checked directly with Pomona first about doing the swap of purple grapes for green grapes, for safety and quality reasons, and were given the all clear.
Safety Check
This White Grape Jelly had a pH of 3.32, measured after 1 month. pH will vary a bit of course based on grape variety used, where grown, growing conditions, etc.
Nutrition information
You can make this jelly with sugar (67 calories per 2 tbsp), or honey (61 calories), or completely sugar-free (44 calories).
Regular version
Per 2 tablespoons:
- 67 calories, 14 mg sodium
With honey
Per 2 tablespoons:
- 61 calories, 14 mg sodium
Sugar-free version
Per 2 tablespoons:
- 44 calories, 14 mg sodium
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
Jackie
Ok I am trying to figure out what to do next. I started with frozen GREEN GRAPES let them thaw then placed them in a large pot with about half cup of water, let boil for twenty minutes, poured into cheese cloth let hang over night. I think I have about 6-8 cups of juice. How much sugar do I use and what is the process time. Hard to get a straight answer from recipes. Do I need pectin, so confused please help.
BobbieLee
I had a bumper crop of lady finger grapes this year…again. In the past I just let the birds take them but this year I decided to try using them. They have seeds to not fun to eat but sure do taste great. I put them through a Jack LaLanne juicer and was going to do just what was done in this recipe, but I had to leave town right after I juiced them, so I bottled the juice in quart jars just as it came out of the juicer, and let it stand in the fridge for a week while I was gone. When I got back, the sediment had sunk and left crystal clear light amber juice on top. I carefully decanted the juice, then got more from dripping the sediment through 3 layers of paper towels. It all cam out beautifully clear and delicious with no added water. Basically it’s just like Welch’s grape juice so it will make delectable jelly. It takes some space and time, but if you want crystal clear jelly, put the juice in the back of the fridge and leave it a week. :-))
Evie Yarnold
Help please, my Grape jelly has not set after two weeks, what do I need to do ???
Healthy Canning
Is it a jelly made with Pomona?