Grape Jam

Last week I picked about 7 pounds of our Concord grapes with the idea that I'd make grape jam.  Well, the preparation for grape jam is more intensive than other preps.  Due to other things going on, I haven't had a chance to make the jam yet.  Tonight was pretty much my last chance, so I made two batches with four pounds of grapes and froze the rest.

Our grape arbor (sans fruit)

I used the Classic Concord Grape Jam recipe from the book Put 'Em Up! Fruit.  I'm not going to be listing any recipes here, because I really think you should go out and buy these books that I'm using.  If you're going to preserve any kind of fruit, I definitely recommend this book!  It has step-by-step instructions for beginners, lots of great tips, and so far, all of the recipes I've tried have turned out really well.

The first step was to pick all of the fruit off of the stems, wash them, and then weigh them.

Two pounds of grapes

Then came the tedious part - "popping" each grape to separate the skin from the rest of the fruit.  The skin went in one pot, the fruit in another.  Both were boiled and simmered.

Pulp

Skins

After that, the pulp went through my brand new Oxo food mill to separate out the seeds. I'm very excited to finally own a food mill, and so far, it seems to work great!  I'll have a better idea of how well it works when I use it for the blackberry jam I plan on making closer to Christmas.

I transferred the skins into the large pot, then added the pulp, sugar, and lemon juice, and boiled it until it hit 200 degrees F.  The setting point is 220 degrees F, but my thermometer never gets to that point.  Instead, I do the "wrinkle test".  Before starting, I put a plate in the freezer so it gets cold.  When I suspect that the jam is about set, I scoop a small spoonful onto the plate and put it in the fridge.  After a minute or so, I push my finger through the jam, and if it appears to wrinkle, then it's done.  So far, the wrinkle test hasn't failed.

The jam is set!

After getting a photo of the jam in the pot, I forgot I was taking photos to document it all.  Oops!

I filled the jars and put them in the pressure cooker for the correct amount of time.  It's a bit annoying how long it takes to actually process the jars.  I'm not sure if it varies from brand to brand, but with my pressure cooker, you have to vent it - which means that you wait until steam is coming out and then time the steam for 10 minutes - and then process it, which means that you turn to the pressure cooker setting and then wait AGAIN for the steam to come out.  The processing time starts from the time that the steam appears again.  After the processing time, you turn off the stove and wait for the pressure to drop (there's a nice little yellow indicator that drops).

Here are the jars of jam right after coming out of the pressure cooker.  From two batches, I ended up with six 4oz jars and seven 8oz jars.