I moved to Georgia this past weekend and am currently staying at my family’s farm house in a small town outside of Athens. My dad has an overabundance of muscadines growing in the backyard and asked me if I could find something to do with them. If you haven’t heard of muscadines before, they are a grapevine native to the southeastern United States. They’re super delicious and grow in abundance in the South. They have a tough outer skin and have a sweet, juicy pulp on the inside. To eat muscadines, you squeeze them to extract the pulp, eat the pulp, and spit out the seeds! I was so excited yesterday to begin my first experiment with cooking with muscadines, and it actually turned out pretty tasty. Here’s my simple muscadine jelly recipe:
5 cups muscadine juice (I pressed a few batches of muscadines until I reached 5 cups, and I’d estimateit’s about 4 gallons of muscadines)
6 cups sugar
1/3 cup pectin
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Jelly Jar Sterilization
I was a bit intimidated by sterilizing jars; something about boiling hot water, hot sugary liquid, and glass make me nervous. So I googled an alternative sterilization method and found you can sterilize your jars by heating them in the oven. The proper way is obviously to boil them, and if you’re brave enough, go for it! If you’re a wimp like me, heat the jars in the oven at 225 Fahrenheit for at least 15 minutes and leave them in there until you are filling them with your jelly. They will be pretty hot so use a dish towel to handle them when filling.
Next Step:
Now it’s time to juice the muscadines. I didn’t have a large pot so I heated a few smaller pots filled with muscadines on the stove top and basically just squished them with the potato masher to get the juice out. I squished them for a good ten minutes until the liquid turned a beautiful plum color.
After you’ve squished the muscadines, pour them into a strainer to strain out the skins, seeds, and bits. What you’ll be left with is a gorgeous, tangy, purple liquid of the Gods 😉 I tossed the leftover mush into my compost tumbler.
Now, put the juice back on the stove top to reheat. Add the pectin and bring it to a boil for a couple of minutes. You want to dissolve all of the pectin in the juice and then add the sugar. Be sure to continuously stir the liquid so it doesn’t burn. I let it boil for a couple of minutes. If it doesn’t seem to be “jelling” you can add a bit more pectin. My jelly turned out not as jelly-ish as I would have liked so I think next time I might add a little more pectin. It’s all a matter of preference though really.
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Last Step:
Lastly, it’s time to fill the jars. They should still be in the oven staying warm so be careful with the hot glass when you take them out. Fill each jar with the jelly, but leave a small amount of space at the top of each jar. Wipe off any excess dripping liquid on the rim of the jars and put the lids on. All that’s left is letting the jars of jelly cool and then enjoy! You should refrigerate the jelly and use it within three months.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my simple muscadine jelly recipe! Have you ever experimented with homemade jam/jelly making?! Tell me your stories 🙂
You might also enjoy these blog posts from Tiny Yellow Bungalow!
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Be sure to head over to our Pinterest page for more delicious and inspiring recipes to try!
Kim
November 1, 2019
Do u add any water to this recipe?
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Sylvia
August 25, 2020
For 5 cups of juice, use 1 cup of water.
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B Casper
August 23, 2022
I just finished making Muscadine Jelly from your recipe. It was really helpful, I wouldn’t have known the amount of sugar to add or when/how to add the pectin. Super great result! Thank you! BC
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B Casper
August 23, 2022
I just finished making Muscadine Jelly from your recipe. It was really helpful, I wouldn’t have known the amount of sugar to add or when/how to add the pectin. Super great result! Thank you! BC
Reply
Lucille
September 6, 2022
why did you not use the water bath process, to keep them preserved longer? mine will be stored on the shelf.
Wash, drain and package in airtight freezer bags or containers. They will hold a year or longer. Cook and use for jellies and jams. The most important thing in making jelly with a delicious flavor is to begin with muscadine juice (jelly stock) that has a fullbodied flavor.
Start by picking your muscadines at the right time. They should be ripe, but not overripe. Overripe fruits tend to have less pectin. Pectin is a substance in fruits that form a gel if they are in the right combination with acid and sugar.
A: For best quality, it is recommended that all home-canned foods be used within a year. Most homemade jams and jellies that use a tested recipe, and have been processed in a canner for the recommended time, should retain best quality and flavor for up to that one year recommended time.
Sadly, however, you can't freeze jelly. We won't go into the scientific specifics of it all, but essentially the chemical bonds that make gelatin are broken when you freeze jelly, meaning it becomes a liquid mess when you defrost it.
Following harvest, store your intact muscadines in a plastic bag to maintain humidity and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks. Grapes with broken skins can be processed for juice or wine if crushed within 2 to 3 hours.
Muscadine wine is also a great source of resveratrol, which is a potent antioxidant. Muscadine grapes contain more of this compound than other types of grapes, and some of the highest antioxidant levels among all fruits, which means that muscadine wine is likely richer in this antioxidant than other types.
Substances essential for fruit jelly making are fruit flavor, pectin, sugar, acid and water. A pectin gel or jelly forms when a suitable concentration of pectin, sugar, acid, and water is achieved.
Jellies are produced by extracting the juice from fruits and then adding sugar and lemon juice (or another acid), while pectin is added to help it solidify. Unlike jams, jellies are known for their heightened sweetness, which is achieved by cooking the fruit over low heat for an extended period.
Combine fruit and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, mashing occasionally with a potato masher, until fruit is very soft, 10 to 15 minutes. ...
In a large heavy-bottomed pot, bring juice to a boil. ...
Ladle jelly into clean containers, leaving 3/4 inch of headroom.
How do you remove seeds from grapes to make jam? You can either cook grapes or strain them in a coarse strainer to separate seeds, but you'll also lose the skins. Or you can seed grapes by cutting them in half and then removing the seeds with your thumb. Lastly use a seedless variety of grapes.
They mature in late summer and early fall and have worked their way into the culinary repertoire of the South in the form of jams, jellies, fruit butter, pies, juice, and especially wine.
Muscadines have a very sweet and distinct flavor and the jelly is delicious. One pot full of grapes at a time, we mashed, pressed and got out the juice.
Introduction: My name is The Hon. Margery Christiansen, I am a bright, adorable, precious, inexpensive, gorgeous, comfortable, happy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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Kim 
Kim 
Sylvia 
B Casper 
Lucille 