I tried to make a low-sugar jelly by just cutting back on the sugar and using a pectin that didn't rely on an abundance of sugar. I've got 21 jars of really tart wild grape jelly. It's a little thin, too, so I'm going to re-cook it with some more sugar and pectin and re-can it.
I found the canning process pretty easy. I used small jars - 8 and 12 ounce - but my canner was made for pints, so that was a bit of a challenge. The small jars kept falling over on the rack. I cut a piece of hardware cloth with a 3/8" mesh and put a bottom on the canner rack, and the jars stood up just fine. It took some organization and coordination to do the canning, and three great big pots. I've only got three working burners on my stove, so my options for what should go where were rather limited. I thought I'd be clever and boil my jars and lids in my roaster. I think that's what destroyed the roaster.
It was really neat listening to the tops of the jars pop as they cooled. That was the sign that I'd done my canning properly. The jelly is really very nice for a first effort, I think. I'm looking forward to doing some more canning. Actually, I'll be doing it this week when I re-batch the jelly.
I'm not going to share any recipe, because it didn't really turn out. With all of the diddling, I don't really know what the recipe is anymore. When I try it again next year, I'll share the recipe, if it turns out.
The booze is another story altogether. It turned out fabulous. It's really good mixed with lemonade or lemon sour. It's beautiful in the bottle - a deep, rich red-purple that coats the sides of the bottle. It tastes summery-fruity and deceptively mild.
Here's the recipe. The amounts will vary with the size jar you have.
- Fill a large jar with gently crushed wild grapes. You want the skins broken, but you don't want to crush the seeds. You can substitute any berry for the wild grapes. I also made booze from wild raspberries and from elderberries, and they were wonderful.
- Add 1 Tablespoon of sugar for each pint of capacity of your jar. For a quart jar, add 2 Tbsp; for a gallon jar 8 Tbsp, etc.
- Fill jar with Everclear (grain alcohol - 151 proof). You can also use vodka.
- Store in a dark, cool spot.
- Shake the jar and/or give it a stir every few days for the first two weeks.
- Shake or stir once a week for the next 8 weeks.
- Strain your booze, squishing as much juice as possible from the grapes. I use a mesh strainer, then squeeze the grapes with my hands. This stains my hands pretty badly, particularly my fingernails, but it washes out eventually. You'll have a lot of grape goo left that you'll need to decide what to do with. If you can get the seeds separate from the pulp, I think that the pulp (which will be boozy) might be nice mixed with jello for some party shooters.
- Run the booze you've collected through a jelly bag to strain out any solids. These can be added to the pulp for your Wild Grape Shooters.
- Give your booze a taste. You may want to sweeten it up some, or to add some water to thin it down a bit if your booze seems kind of "thick" (think juice concentrate) or too strong or some additional vodka if it's too weak (I don't know what your tastes are). BE CAREFUL. No matter what you add, it's going to taste funny if you taste it right away. It will have to sit in order for you to know what result you've gotten. You can always add more sugar and water and vodka later, but you can't take it out once you've put it in. If you want to add both sugar and water, dissolve the sugar in the water before putting them into your booze.
- Bottle up your booze. Use glass bottles with screw on tops. I use old booze bottles, since they're made for the purpose.
- Store your booze in a dark, cool spot. If you added any sugar, water or vodka at tasting time, let your booze sit for at least a month (shaking it up once or twice a week) before tasting it again so that the flavors can blend and mellow.
FT
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