Making gelled juices is a compact and very tasty preservation method. It differs from simple thick jam or marmalade only in that they try to get the most transparent product of medium density. Even in jelly, unlike other similar sweets, spices or natural flavors are more often added.
Grapes jelly - general principles of preparation
• The basis for making jelly is grape juice, which is squeezed only from well-ripened, unripe grapes.
• You need to select large, dense grapes. Rotten and crushed discarded, they are unsuitable for making jelly. The berries ragged from the branches are thoroughly washed with warm water and slightly dried from excess moisture, placed in a colander.
• In most cases, juice from grapes is extracted after heat treatment, squeezing through cheesecloth or grinding on a sieve. It is extremely rare to use a juicer.
• Freshly squeezed grape juice must be measured to accurately determine the amount of sugar needed, and boiled over low heat until halved. In the process of boiling, sugar is gradually mixed with it so that it dissolves well.
• Jelly from grapes can be prepared both without thickeners and with them. Thickener is added if you want to reduce the cooking time. This role may be gelatin, pectin, agar-agar or special mixtures for jam, for example, "Zhelfiks". They are added according to the instructions on the package or a couple of minutes before readiness, and after that they are not allowed to boil jam, but only bring to boil and immediately pour.
• The readiness of the jelly is checked by dropping a small amount of it into a container of cold water. If a drop drops to the bottom and does not dissolve - the jelly is ready.
• For long-term storage, prepared jelly jam is packaged only in sterile jars and rolled up with boiled lids. If thickeners are added to it before rolling, jars of jelly are lowered into a container with sufficiently hot water, boiled and sterilized in it. Grapes made of grapes without thickeners are rolled immediately after being poured.
Transparent grape jelly with apples and wine
Ingredients:
• kilogram of dark grapes;
• white sweet wine - 125 ml;
• a small lemon;
• drinking boiled water - 100 ml;
• cinnamon stick;
• two small apples;
• four boxes of cardamom.
Per liter of juice:
• sugar - 500 gr.;
• packaging "Zhelfiksa" (2: 1).
Cooking method:
1. Gather grapes from twigs, discarding crumpled and rotten grapes. Rinse the selected grapes with warm water and transfer to a saucepan.
2. Wash apples and lemon. Cut the citrus into four parts, remove the core from apples and cut into slices. Send fruit to the grapes.
3. Add, grinded in a mortar or grinded with a coffee grinder, cinnamon and cardamom, pour in wine and water, mix.
4. Cover the pan with a lid and set to boil over moderate heat.
5. After about an hour, when the pieces of fruit are completely softened and release a lot of juice, discard everything on a sieve and leave it in it.
6. Do not grind and do not try to squeeze, otherwise the jelly will turn cloudy. Additionally, you can filter the expressed juice through gauze in several layers.
7. Measure the volume of filtered juice. Add to it granulated sugar mixed with Zhelfiks, stir and boil for a quarter of an hour, cool.
Grape Jelly
Ingredients:
• grapes of dark varieties (without branches) - 2 kg;
• filtered water - 800 ml;
• sugar, per 1 liter of grated grapes - 700 g.
Cooking method:
1. Tear off the fleshy flesh-free grapes from the crests and collect them in a large pot. Pour in the calculated water: 400 ml of liquid per kilo of berries and put to boil.
2. After boiling, boil the grapes for 20 minutes and discard everything on a fine metal sieve. When all the liquid has drained, gently rub the softened berries, leaving the skins on a sieve.
3. Measure the volume of the resulting mass, measure the required amount of sugar.
4. Pour the grape puree into a thick-walled pan and set to boil on medium heat, constantly removing the foam that forms on its surface.
5. Once it begins to boil, add small amounts of granulated sugar, stirring it thoroughly after adding each serving.
6. When all the sugar has been added, boil the jelly until the volume is halved.
7. Check the readiness by dripping a little jelly on cold water poured into a glass. If a drop falls freely to the bottom and does not dissolve, then it’s ready.
Grape Jelly with Citruses
Ingredients:
• two large oranges;
• six lemons;
• 5 gr. "lemons";
• 500 gr. sugar.
Cooking method:
1. In a thick-walled pan, boil thick syrup from all the sugar.
2. Wash the lemons and oranges and dip them in boiling water for three minutes. Then cut the citruses in half and squeeze the juice.
3. Cut off grapes from twigs, cut in half and dip in citrus juice. Boil the berries with a slight boil for at least a quarter, but not more than 1/3 of the hour, after which let stand, removing from heat, about 20 minutes.
4. On a sieve, put gauze folded in two layers and pour the contents of the pan into it, drain all the juice. Then wrap the pulp in a gauze bag and wring out the rest of it.
5. In chilled juice, add citric acid, dissolved in a small amount of boiled water, slightly crushed on a fine grater of citrus zest and sugar syrup.
6. Boil fruit jelly over low heat until cooked. For long-term storage, pour it hot on sterile jars and seal them tightly.
Grape-free jelly for winter
Ingredients:
• large, dark grapes;
• sugar, based on: 500 gr. for 1 liter of juice.
Cooking method:
1. Dry, taken from twigs of grapes, put in a large saucepan and set to warm over low heat.
2. Once the berries begin to burst and become soft, remove the pan from the stove. Remember the grapes by the blender and transfer to a gauze filter, composed of several layers. Bring the edges of the fabric so that you get a bag, and squeeze it well into a separate pan. To get more juice, squeeze the grapes in small portions.
3. Drain the juice remaining in the pan to the freshly squeezed juice and let it stand for a while. Then gently strain from the sediment, filtering through several layers of gauze, and measure its amount.
4. For each liter of grape juice add a pound of sugar, mix and put on medium heat, carefully stirring the granulated sugar in the juice.
5. As soon as it begins to boil, lower the flame level so that the syrup does not boil, and boil it to the desired consistency.
6. Then pour the jelly hot on sterile half-liter containers, wipe their neck dry and close the lids.
7. Place the jars in a pan of hot water on a wire rack or a thick layer of cloth and pasteurize the jelly under the lid for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the jars and roll the lids with a seaming key.
A simple recipe for jelly grapes without thickeners for the winter
Ingredients:
• grapes of any dark variety - 5 kg;
• a kilo of unrefined sugar;
• 300 ml of drinking filtered water.
Cooking method:
1. Mix half of the measured sugar with water. On low heat, stirring continuously, bring the syrup to transparency. Then pour in the washed grapes collected from the crests and boil for at least 10 minutes.
2. Strain the chilled syrup through a rare sieve or several layers of gauze and drain back into the pan. And here, through cheesecloth, slightly squeeze the pulp.
3. In the resulting juice, add the remaining sugar, mix well and cook on low heat until tender.
4. Pour the hot jelly into sterile jars and tightly roll the lids for preservation.
Original jelly from grapes with apple slices
Ingredients:
• two kilos of any sweet apples;
• a spoon of baking soda;
• two kilograms of dark grapes;
• 4 kg of sugar;
• two teaspoons "lemons";
• pectin - 4 sachets.
Cooking method:
1. Cut peeled apples and seeds into thin slices, put them in a large bowl.
2. In one liter of cold water, dilute a tablespoon of soda and pour apple slices with the resulting solution for four hours. Be sure to place a small load on top so that all the apples are immersed in a soda solution.
3. On a juicer, squeeze the juice from the grapes and put it on a small fire. As soon as it warms up well, pour in it pectin, all four sachets, and bring to a boil.
4. Add two kilos of sugar and stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil again, but do not boil. As soon as you notice that the bubbles rise up, pour citric acid, stir and immediately remove from heat.
5. Rinse apple slices well from soda.
6. In a separate pan, mix the remaining sugar with 200 ml of drinking water and over low heat, stirring, dissolve it. Then add heat and, as soon as the syrup boils, lower the slices washed from soda into it.
7. Boil the apples over high heat for about 1/4 hour and pour grape syrup with pectin to them. Bring to a boil and immediately pack in sterile jars. Roll up.
Grapes jelly - cooking tips and tricks
• Jelly from sweet grape varieties can turn out to be excessively sweet, so at the end of cooking it is recommended to break the sugary taste with freshly squeezed lemon juice or citric acid.
• To get a brighter taste, grape jellies are prepared with citruses or fruits (apples).
• The cooking process can be significantly reduced by using wide containers for boiling. The wider and lower the dishes, the faster the moisture will evaporate.
• To make the jelly transparent, let the freshly squeezed juice stand and filter it, gently draining from the sediment.
