HOW TO MAKE WILD CRANBERRY JELLY

In an earlier blog I was telling you that we had gone up to the mountains and picked our high-bush cranberries for making jelly. Well today we are going to make the jelly. :) Now, this is just the way I make jelly. I have experimented and trial and error to get my process down. I am sure there are many other ways of doing this, but this is how we do it. 

Supplies you will need will be:

Berries
Cook pan
Bowl
Sugar
Lemon juice
Liquid fruit pectin
Jelly jars and lids
Small plate to test jelly. Put this in the freezer so it is cold when you test.

 

First you need to pick your berries. We have so many berries up here it is hard to get them all picked. These are the high-bush cranberries we picked. A lot of the jelly process is the same for all of the berries you might pick. A big part of the process is how much natural pectin the berries have and the ripeness of the berries which varies from year to year. Pectin is what makes the jelly jell. You will just have to test and see what works that year.

 

 

First step is to sterilize your jelly jars. I do this by putting them in a large pan of boiling water for 10 minutes or until I have all my other supplies set up and ready to go.

 

 

Then measure 4 cups of berries to 2 cups of water. Put on the stove and bring to a boil.

 

  

 

 

Cook for approximately 7 minutes or until the berries burst. This whole jelly making process is a two man job so you may need some help. Notice hubby is the "stirrer". :)

 

After you cook the berries you will need to put the cooked berries in a cheesecloth bag like this one. This is a stock picture since I forgot to take a picture of this step. :(  Once the berries are in the bag you will need to squeeze the berries to get the juice from the berries as that is what you need for the jelly. Now be careful with this step the berries are very hot! I usually hold the bag and hubby uses my "pinchers" as I call them. Don't know the official name, but the ones you can grab hot things with. :)  

 

After you squeeze the berries you will have just berry juice left. Next you will need to measure the juice and put it in the cook pan again. I do 1-1 ratio. I use 2 cups of juice to 2 cups of sugar. You will be able to experiment what works best for you. Bring the juice to a boil and add the sugar until it is dissolved.

 

Next add in 3 teaspoons of lemon juice to the pan and appx 1/2 package of liquid pectin to start with. Cook this appx 5 minutes. Now as the jelly cooks it will form a head on it so be careful that it doesn't over boil. If the color changes stop cooking immediately. You will need to test the jelly on the small plate to see how it is jelling. Take a little spoonful of the jelly and put it on the plate and turn the plate at an angle to have it run down the plate. If it seems like it is jelling ok and is slowly running down the plate it is good to go. If not, then add a little more pectin and another teaspoon of lemon juice.

 

Once jelly is jelling and ready to go pour into the sterilized jars. Let the jelly cool for awhile before you put the lids on. That way you can see if it is jelling also.

  



 

The hardest thing to gauge working with wild berries is the natural pectin and ripeness. Each year is different and each years growing conditions are different. One year they will be great and the next won't be. Over the years we have just worked with whatever the berries are for that year, but there is nothing better that having your own jelly in the middle of the winter. You can also make syrup from these berries which is another tutorial one of these days. Very good on pancakes!

 

Well I hope that wasn't too complicated. It is really pretty easy once you get your procedure down and know what you are doing...and yes....hubby and I say every year....."now how did we do this and that"! :)

 

 

Thanks for joining me and have a great week!

  

RASPBERRY JELLY MAKING TIME!

Normally we make our jellies in the fall, but this year you might recall that we were busy fighting the flood in our basement so the jelly making process was put on hold. Luckily the berries can be frozen so we can make the jelly anytime. We usually pick raspberries and high bush cranberries (also called Moose berries. J), but this year we only had time to pick the raspberries. All the berries we pick are wild berries on the peninsula here. This year was a good year for the raspberries as it was a little warmer with more sun and not tons of rain. Makes a difference in the quality of the berries. Some years the berries are better than others and they have more natural pectin in them so you don’t have to use as much store bought pectin. It is really amazing how the quality affects the jelly.

So here is the process of making homemade raspberry jelly….or at least our process.

 

JAR PREPARATIONS:

You need to sterilize your canning jars, rings and lids. I reuse my canning jars and rings every year, but NEVER reuse the lids. Always buy new lids.  I sterilize them and leave them in the water while I am cooking the jelly.

INGREDIENTS:

Fresh wild raspberries (takes about a 1 gallon freezer bag of berries for 4 cups of juice)

Sugar
Pectin packets (from the grocery store)
Lemon juice
 

You only need the juice from the raspberries so you get this by putting the cold berries in a cheese cloth or berry bags and squeezing the juice into a bowl.

Place 2 small plates in the freezer for testing the jelly later. After you get all the juice out of the berries discard the squeezed berries. Pour 2 cups of berry juice in a stainless steel pan. The stainless steel works the best. Bring this juice to a boil. Then add 2 cups of sugar and dissolve. Add 3 teaspoons of lemon juice and ½ a packet of pectin. This is what you start with….after testing the jelly you may have to add more lemon juice or sugar.

Cook 3-4 minutes while boiling. Now you need to be careful with this step as the jelly juice in the pan when boiling will rise to the top of the pan, so to prevent overflowing I always lift the pan off the heat until it goes back down. After about 3 minutes or so, take the little plate out of the freezer and spoon a tablespoon or so on the plate to test if the jelly will jell ok. After you put the jelly on the plate wait a few moments and then tip the plate and see how the jelly runs down the plate. If it is slow and creeping and seems to be jelling then the jelly is ok….if not and it runs fast you will need to put a little more ingredients in. I start with about ¼ cup of sugar and another teaspoon of lemon juice. After letting it boil a little I test again. You shouldn’t have to add too much to the original ingredients. Just depends on the quality of the berries that year. Once and awhile I have to add a little more pectin if the berries aren’t as high quality that year. You will learn what is best for that year.

 

When the jelly is jelling ok you then take the jars out of the water and ladle the cooked jelly into them. Leave the lids off for several hours for the jelly to “set-up”. When the jelly has set you can put the lids on and tighten them up and put them in storage. Whalla…..you have just made jelly.

 

Sounds pretty easy huh? Well, let me tell you we had quite a learning curve when we first started doing this several years ago. This first year the jelly wouldn’t jell and we kept adding stuff to it and I think we had more sugar than jelly in them. Also after letting it sit for hours to jell in the jars some of the batches didn’t set very good so we had to poor them back into the pan
and add a little more “stuff” to them. J The jelly actually tasted pretty good. So it takes practice. This year the berries were great and I think we have the best jelly we ever have had.

So all of you berry pickers out there…..now you can make jelly! Thanks for joining me in my jelly making process. Hope you enjoyed it.