Jam & Bread - Part III

Part III - Jelly Update 

 

I finished making jelly from the second half of my grape juice.  In total, I made 8 batches resulting in 75 jars of Jelly.  I've already given away several jars and have 59 left in my basement.  Yep, that is almost five dozen jars.  That's a lot of jelly.  Note to self: next year, maybe a gallon and a half of juice would be plenty.  The last gallon and a half made four batches and just took an afternoon.  An afternoon is enough jelly making for me unless I'm going to change up the fruit a bit. 

For the last four batches, I made two regular batches and two low sugar batches.  This time I used Sure Gel brand pectin.  It seems to be easier to find than the Ball brand. 

I had a few new issues.  The Sure Gel batches foam and bubble quite a bit.  Once I put it in jars there tends to be a bit of a foam on the top.  I don't think it hurts anything, but it doesn't look very nice.  I can't remember where, but somewhere I read that you should skim the foam off the top.  I wasn't sure how to get that done without losing some jelly too (as if I don't have enough).  I also had the same issue with the low sugar batch as I did before.  It seems to have very thickly gelled patches that are more clear in color than red.  It remains to be seen if that will be noticeable in the final product.  I didn't seem to notice it when I was eating the original batch of low sugar jelly, but maybe I haven't opened the wrong jar yet.

One final minor issue was for the last three batches, after processing the jars and lids came out with a white film on them.  I'm still not sure what caused it, but it seemed to wash off just fine.  My best guess is that since I reused jars, there may have been some residue left after I washed off the labels.

At any rate, my jelly making expedition is over and it has sparked my interest in canning.  It was something I was afraid to try but really wasn't as difficult as I expected.  I'll definitely make jelly again and perhaps I'll try canning pickles next.  My grandma Shirley made great pickles when she had a garden... She also makes great bread which goes better with jelly than pickles. 

Part I – Grape Juice

Part II – Grape Jelly

Part IV – Refrigerator Roll Dough

Part V – Bread
Part VI - Butter
Part VII - Bread Update (Potato Water)