GRAPE JELLY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 42, 19 February 1943, Page 5

GRAPE JELLY

FRUIT SHOULD BE FIRM

The following recipe for grape jelly has been provided by the Home Science Extension Bureau, Otago:— The grapes should be well coloured, but fairly firm for the best consistency and flavour. The grapes are picked from tne clusters and washed. They are then weighed and placed in a suitable saucepan, and water equal to one cup per lb of fruit is added, lhey should boil slowly until the berries are quite tender, but not pulped. The free-run juice is strained off through a layer of cheesecloth. The pulps are returned to the saucepan, and twice as much water added as in the first extraction. They should boil slowly for eight to ten .minutes. The saucepan should be removed from the fire and allowed to stand for ten minutes. The juice; is strained off through a single layer ;ofp cheesecloth, and the-pulps are "squeezed or pressed in order to ob--,tain all the juice. The extracts are then mixed and strained through 'four layers of cheesecloth. } The juice is converted into jelly as —A measured amount of ?juice is poured into a suitable sauce"■paii and*concentrated by rapid boiling to one-half the original volume. Sugar equal to lib per quart of extracted juice (or pound of fruit) is added. (If the grapes are quite acid lib of sugar per quart df juice may used.) Rapid boiling is continued until (the jelly test is given. The finished 'jelly is strained through one layer of cheesecloth and is quickly poured into clean, dry glasses. When the jelly has set, hot paraffin is added, the covers are adjusted, and the jelly is stored. Sometimes jelly - makers are troubled by having the potassium bitartrate crystallise out in their grape jelly. This maybe avoided by canning the grape juice in ordinary fruit jars and storing for a few months. During this time the crystals will form and settle to the bottom of the jars. The clear juice may then be drawn off and made into . - • In canning the juice, clean glass jars are filled with the extracted juice, the jars are partially sealed and processed in the hot water bath —quarts 15 minutes, two quarts 20 minutes. The jars are then removed and sealed.