Muscadine Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pulp the muscadines, saving all the pulp and juice, and add the hulls for color.
If there isn't enough juice to prevent scorching, add a little water.
Cook on a brisk fire for 20 to 30 minutes.
Remove from heat and strain through a flannel bag.
Make the jelly
Add 1 pint of sugar to the juice and return to the fire.
Boil hard for 20 minutes without stirring.
Test for stiffness by placing a little in a saucer to cool; boil longer if not stiff enough.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Muscadine pulp and juice
- Provides the liquid and natural pectin that set the jelly.
- Muscadine hulls
- Add color to the jelly as they cook in the juice.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set to a firm gel when boiled.
The step that matters
Boiling hard without stirring, then testing for stiffness. Sugar must be boiled to a high enough concentration for the pectin and acid in the fruit to form a gel. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while stirring can disturb the set. The saucer test checks whether the gel point has been reached.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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