Concord Grape Jam

 

There is nothing like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but my favorite jelly with peanut butter is by far grape jelly.  So much flavor bursting in your mouth.  I know I am not alone on this one is there is jars of peanut butter already mixed with grape jelly.  My roommate way back int he day use to buy it and eat it by the spoonful!

This grape jelly, the one you can make at home if you have access to Concord Grapes is phenomenal. But here is the exciting news, you can even make it with frozen concentrate grape juice.  Yeah! Wowzer!  Just reconstitute it and follow the recipe below as usual, omitting the water in the recipe.

Concord Grape Jelly

3 pounds of Concord Grapes
1/2 cup water

4 cups Concord Grape Juice (that you extracted or from concentrate)
7 cups sugar
pectin powder or liquid directions to follow.

Take the grapes off the stems and place them in a heavy bottom sauce pan or soup pot.  Pour in a half cup water.  Using a potato masher, squash the grapes.  If you do not have a potato masher, you can use your hands.  Just get them all squashed.  Bring the grape to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover.  Simmer for 10 minutes.

While the grapes are simmering away, prepare a colander lined with cheese cloth. Place it over a pot or a bowl that it can drain into it.  It has to be large enough to hold all the grapes. I used a fine mesh colander and did not need to use cheesecloth.  Yeah!

Once it is done simmering, pour the grapes into your cheesecloth line colander or a fine mesh strainer.