Grape Jam
The concord grapevine in my garden hit peak ripeness about a week ago, and you best believe I was out there cleaning house. Since not everyone has a grapevine, I scaled this grape jam recipe down to about a pint and a half. You’ll need about 2 lbs of fresh grapes, which is how the grocery store normally portions them.
Once you’ve had homemade grape jam, it’s tough to go back. When my stash inevitably runs out and I switch back to the store brand, there’s always something missing.
Making this jam takes a bit more work than most other jams, simply because you have to separate each individual grape from its skin before continuing with the recipe. Your fingers will be a little purple, but your kitchen will smell like grape soda.
You may or may not have a food mill at home, and you can make this grape jam either way. As long as you can effectively separate the seeds from the pulp, then you’re good. I’ve used both a sieve and a chinois previously, but a food mill removes about 90% of the elbow grease and it goes a lot quicker.
Splatter
As you cook down the grape jam, it’s going to get messy when you close in on the cooking time. As the jam thickens, it will bubble more violently and splatter quite a bit. If you’re making this in a bigger batch, make sure that there’s enough room in the pot to accommodate a bit of bubbling up whenever you stir. I like to have a little less than half of the pot as room to stir.
Keep a close eye on this jam near the end of the cooking time, since it’s more prone to burning to the bottom of the pan. If a little does burn, you can just discard the burned bit. It won’t affect the flavor of the rest of the jam.
Grape Jam
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour + 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 1/2 pints 1x
- Category: Condiments, Canning
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Description
Slow simmered for rich grape flavor!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs fresh concord grapes (6 cups), washed and stems removed
- 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 1 1/2 TB fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Separate the green inside pulp of the grapes from the blue/purple skins by squeezing the bottom stem end of each grape until the pulp breaks through the skin. It shouldn’t take much pressure at all, unless the grapes are a bit under ripe.
- As you work through the grapes, separate the green pulp into a 3 quart saucepan, and the skins into the bowl of a food processor.
- Once all the grapes have been skinned, set the saucepan with the green pulp over medium high heat and bring to a boil, and cook for 25-30 minutes. As the pulp cooks, it will soften and break down. Stir the pulp occasionally, using the back of a spoon to smash the pulp against the sides of the pan.
- Once the pulp has completely broken down and has a soupy consistency, remove it from the heat and add the cooked pulp to a food mill. Turn the handle 5-6 times to completely separate the seeds from the pulp. Discard the seeds and add the pulp back to the saucepan, and set aside.
- Add one cup of the sugar to the skins in the food processor bowl and pulse until the skins have mostly liquefied into a deep purple liquid. There will be shreds of skins remaining, this is okay and will make the jam more flavorful.
- Scrape the purple liquid into the saucepan with the green pulp and add the remaining cup of sugar and the lemon juice.Β
- Bring the jam to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar, and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30-35 minutes, or until the jam reaches 220 degrees. Be sure to stir more frequently towards the end of the cooking time to prevent burning.Β
- Ladle the hot jam into a couple clean jars, seal and allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Use within 2-3 months.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
- Calories: 80
- Sugar: 20.4 g
- Sodium: 0.6 mg
- Fat: 0.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 20.7 g
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 0.2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
