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How to Make Homemade Jelly from Bottled or Frozen Juice - Easily!

How to Make Homemade Jelly from Bottled or Frozen Juice (apple, pomegranate, raspberry, blueberry, peach, etc.) - Easily!

How to Make Homemade Jelly from Bottled Fruit Juice - Easily!

Making and canning your own jelly from bottled, frozen or fresh juice! It is very easy. You can make jelly from almost any type of fruit juice: apple, grape, pomegranate, raspberry, blueberry, peach, apricot, mixed berry, etc; as long as it is 100% juice, and preferably without additives.  You can make the jelly sugarless, or add sugar, honey or even Stevia (in a prepared form like Truvia, it measures same as sugar; if you use another form, you will need do your own conversion) - or Splenda, if you prefer, , depending upon your own needs and tastes. Here's how to do it, in a few easy steps and completely illustrated. Any variations will be spelled out in the directions inside the pectin package. 

Related pages: See this page for How to make muscadine or scuppernong jelly or this page for Jam-making directions and this page for apple jelly directions!

For easy applesauce or apple butter directions, click on these links.

Ingredients

• Fruit juice - 5 cups bottled, without sugar added or reconstituted from frozen, without sugar. (see step 1 for notes about juice with sugar)
• Pectin - 1 package (box usually) or if you get it in bulk, 8 Tablespoons, see the directions below for specifics - (it's a natural product, made from apples and available at grocery stores (season - spring through late summer) and local "big box" stores. It usually goes for about $2.00 to $2.50 per box. You will get best results with no-sugar needed pectin, whether you choose to add sugar or not! See here for more information about how to choose the type of pectin to use.
• Sugar - About 4.5 cups of dry, granulated (table) sugar. For the no-sugar recipe, click here

 

 Equipment

• Large spoons and ladles,
• Jar funnel ($5 at Target, other big box stores, and often grocery stores; and available online - see this page) or order it as part of the kit with the Jar grabber .
• Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)- Big box stores and grocery stores sometimes carry them; and it is available online - see this page. It's a tremendously useful to put jars in the canner and take the hot jars out (without scalding yourself!). The kit sold below has everything you need, and at a pretty good price:
  See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon

• At least 1 large pot; I prefer 16 to 20 quart Nonstick ceramic coated pots for easy cleanup.
• 1 Water Bath Canner (a huge pot to sanitize the jars after filling (about $30 to $35 at mall kitchen stores, sometimes at big box stores and grocery stores.). Note: we sell canners and supplies here, too - at excellent prices - and it helps support this web site!
• Half pint canning jars (Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger, Safeway carry them, as do some big box stores - about $7 per dozen 8 ounce jars including the lids and rings)
• Lids - thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar. They may only be used once.
• Rings - metal bands that secure the lids to the jars. They may be reused many times.

Optional stuff:

• Lid lifter (has a magnet to pick the lids out of the almost-boiling water where you sanitize them. ($4 at big box stores or it comes in the kit at left)

 

Making Jelly-from-Juice Directions

This example shows you how to make jelly from fruit juice. You can use this recipe to make almost any type of jelly from the fruit juice; where there is a difference, I will point it out! The yield from this recipe is about 12 eight-ounce jars (which is the same as 6 pints).

Step 1 - Wash the jars and lids

Now's a good time to get the jars ready, so you won't be rushed later. The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle, the water bath processing will sanitize them as well as the contents! If you don't have a dishwasher with a sanitize cycle, you can wash the containers in hot, soapy water and rinse, then sanitize the jars by boiling them 10 minutes, and keep the jars in hot water until they are used.

NOTE: If a canning recipe calls for 10 minutes or more of process time in the canner, then the jars do not need to be "sanitized" before filling them. But really, sanitizing them first is just good hygeine and common sense!  See this page for more detail about cleaning and sanitizing jars and lids.

Put the lids into a pan of hot, but not quite boiling water (that's what the manufacturer's recommend) for 10 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" to pull them out.

Leave the jars in the dishwasher on "heated dry" until you are ready to use them. Keeping them hot will prevent the jars from breaking when you fill them with the hot jelly.

Step 2 - Measure out the sugar (or honey)

Check the directions with the pectin; typically, it is 7 cups of sugar to 5 cups of fruit juice and one box of pectin. The precise measurements are found in each and every box of pectin sold. Mix the dry pectin with about 1/4 cup of sugar and Keep this separate from the rest of the sugar. If you are not using sugar, you will just have to stir more vigorously to prevent the pectin from clumping.

If the juice has sugar in it already, it will probably still work, but it might take trial and error to find out how much more sugar to add to get a good set. If you use juice with sugar in it, try using a no-sugar-needed pectin and adding sugar to it.  That will certainly work. You can always add more sugar or honey to make it sweeter, if that's the taste you like.

If you use a no-sugar-needed pectin, then you could make a sugar-free jam, by also using a 100% fruit juice that has no sugar added.

 

 

Step 3 - Add the pectin to the hot strained juice and bring to a full boil

Stir the pectin into the fruit juice and put the mix in a big pot on the stove over medium to high heat (stir often enough to prevent burning). It should take about 5 to 10 minutes to get it to a full boil (the kind that cannot be stirred away).

Notes about pectin: I usually add about 20% more pectin (just open another pack and add a little) or else the jelly is runnier than I like. With a little practice, you will find out exactly how much pectin to get the thickness you like.

Another tip: use the no-sugar pectin. It cuts the amount of sugar you need from 7 cups per batch to 4 cups. And it tastes even better! On the other hand; I still add some sugar, even with the No-sugar pectin. With no added sugar, the batches always turned out runny and bland. You might want to try using the low sugar recipe with a mixture of sugar and Stevia (in a prepared form like Truvia, it measures same as sugar; if you use another form, you will need do your own conversion) - or Splenda, if you prefer, ; that could work.

Is your jelly too runny? Pectin enables you to turn out perfectly set jelly every time. Made from natural apples, there are also natural no-sugar pectins that allow you to reduce the sugar you add by half or even eliminate sugar.!
Get canning jars, rings, lids and pectin deliverd:

 

Step 4 - Get the lids warming

If you didn't do so already, put the lids into a pan of hot water for at least several minutes; to soften up the gummed surface and clean the lids.

Need lids, rings and replacement jars?

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Step 5 - Add the remaining sugar and bring to a boil

When the grape-pectin mix has reached a full boil, add the rest of the sugar (about 6 and 3/4 cups of sugar per 5 cup batch of fruit juice; 4 cups of sugar if you are using the low or no-sugar pectin) and then bring it back to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 6 - Testing for "jell" (thickness)

I keep a metal tablespoon sitting in a glass of ice water, then take a half spoonful of the mix and let it cool to room temperature on the spoon. If it thickens up to the consistency I like, then I know the jelly is ready. If not, I mix in a little more pectin (about 1/4 to 1/2 of another package) and bring it to a boil again for 1 minute.

 

Step 7 - Fill the jars and put the lid and rings on

Fill them to within 1/4-inch of the top, wipe any spilled jelly off the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them. Then put the filled jars into the canner!

This is where the jar tongs come in really handy!

 

Step 8 - Process the jars in the boiling water bath

Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water. Keep the water boiling. In general, boil them for 5 minutes, which is what SureJell (the makers of the pectin) recommend.  I say "in general" because you have to process (boil) them longer at higher altitudes than sea level, or if you use larger jars, or if you did not sanitize the jars and lids right before using them.  The directions inside every box of pectin will tell you exactly - and see the Table below for altitude differences. The directions on the pectin tend to be pretty conservative.  Note: Some people don't even boil the jars; they just ladle it hot into hot jars, put the lids and rings on and invert them, but putting the jars in the boiling water bath REALLY helps to reduce spoilage! To me, it makes little sense to put all the working into making the jelly and then not to process the jars to be sure they don't spoil!

 

Step 9 - Remove and cool the jars - Done!

Lift the jars out of the water with your jar lifter tongs and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like, but if you leave them on, at least loosen them quite a bit, so they don't rust in place due to trapped moisture. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.

Once cooled, they're ready to store. I find they last up to 12 months. But after about 6 to 8 months, they get darker in color and start to get runny. They still are safe to eat, but the flavor and texture aren't as good. So eat them in the first 6 months after you prepare them!

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Other Equipment:

From left to right:

1. Jar lifting tongs to pick up hot jars
2. Lid lifter - to remove lids from the pot of boiling water (sterilizing )
3. Lids- disposable - you may only use them once
4. Ring - holds the lids on the jar until after the jars cool - then you remove them, save them and reuse them
5. Canning Jar funnel - to fill the jars

 

 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I was reading the instructions on making jelly. We have a super-duper juicer that we can run the grapes through and skip the grape-food processor/ crushing steps, but is that a suitable thing to do?

A. Sure, that ought to work great!

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You can get all of the tools in a kit here: See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon