Elderberry Jelly

Name: Elderberry Jelly
Prep time: 3 h
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 50
Cuisine: Global
Ingredients: 1 kilograms ripe elderberries; 59 milliliters freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1 packet MCP or SureJell pectin; 1 liters white granulated sugar; 0 teaspoons butter

The recipe Elderberry Jelly can be made in roughly 3 hours. This recipe makes 50 servings with 90 calories, 0g of protein, and 0g of fat each. This recipe covers 2% of your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals. This recipe from Simply Recipes requires elderberries, lemon juice, surejell pectin, and granulated sugar. It is a good option if you're following a gluten free, lacto ovo vegetarian, and fodmap friendly diet. It works well as a condiment. Elderberry Jelly, SURE.JELL Elderberry Jelly, and CERTOÂ® Elderberry Jelly are very similar to this recipe.

Instructions

Rinse the elderberry clusters: Rinse elderberry clusters thoroughly. I find the easiest way to do this is to put them in the basin of my kitchen sink, and fill it up with water.

Ingredients you will need

Elderberries

Water

If you've picked your own elderberries, often there are little squash bugs or spiders that will come to the surface, so keep an eye out for them.

Ingredients you will need

Elderberries

Squash

Strip the elderberries from their stems: Working over a large bowl, work on one small cluster at a time, gently raking your fingers or the tines of a fork across the clusters to dislodge the berries from the stems.

Ingredients you will need

Elderberries

Berries

Equipment you will use

Bowl

Use mostly berries that are completely blue or black. A few underripe green berries are fine; they have more pectin and including them will help the jelly set.

Ingredients you will need

Berries

Pectin

Jelly

For each batch of jelly, collect 3 lbs of de-stemmed elderberries (about 8 to 10 cups).

Ingredients you will need

Elderberries

Jelly

Put the elderberries in a pot and bring to a simmer:

Ingredients you will need

Elderberries

Equipment you will use

Pot

Place berries in a large pot and crush with a potato masher to release some of the juices. Turn the heat to medium and continue to crush as the mixture heats up to a boil.

Ingredients you will need

Berries

Potato

Equipment you will use

Potato Masher

Pot

Once the berries and their juices reach a boil, reduce the heat to low and let the berries simmer for 10 minutes.

Ingredients you will need

Berries

Remove from heat.

Place a large fine-mesh sieve, or 4 layers of cheesecloth, over a pot.

Equipment you will use

Cheesecloth

Sieve

Pot

Slowly transfer the mashed berries and juice over the sieve to strain the juice out into the pot.

Ingredients you will need

Berries

Juice

Equipment you will use

Sieve

Pot

Let strain for an hour.

jars for canning: You'll need 5-6 8-ounce canning jars and lids. Rinse out the jars and place on a baking sheet, top up, in the oven.

Equipment you will use

Baking Sheet

Canning Jar

Oven

Heat for 10 minutes at 200°F to sterilize the jars.

To sterilize the lids, bring a kettle of a couple cups of water to a boil.

Ingredients you will need

Water

Place lids in a shallow bowl and pour the boiling water over them.

Ingredients you will need

Water

Equipment you will use

Bowl

out the juice: You will need 3 cups of juice to make one batch of jelly if using MCP or Sure

Ingredients you will need

Jelly

Juice

Jell pectin.**

Ingredients you will need

Pectin

Any amount more than that you can reserve for making syrup, or add to another batch for jelly.

Ingredients you will need

Jelly

Syrup

Place 3 cups of juice into a large, high sided, wide pot (8-quart).

Ingredients you will need

Juice

Equipment you will use

Pot

Add the lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil on high heat.

Ingredients you will need

Lemon Juice

Pectin

Add 4 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of butter. Stir with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil again. Watch the pot as the mixture will foam up considerably. You may need to lower the heat a bit to keep the foam from boiling over the pot.

Ingredients you will need

Butter

Sugar

Equipment you will use

Wooden Spoon

Pot

By the way, the reason we add a small amount of butter is that it helps keep the mixture from boiling up as high.

Ingredients you will need

Butter

Boil the mixture, then pour into canning jars: As soon as the mixture reaches a rolling boil that you cannot diminish by stirring, watch the clock.

Equipment you will use

Canning Jar

At exactly 2 minutes, remove from heat and pour mixture into canning jars to 1/4-inch of headspace from the rim.

Equipment you will use

Canning Jar

Secure canning jars with lids: Wipe rims with a damp paper towel.

Equipment you will use

Canning Jar

Paper Towels

Place lids on jars and rings to secure.

If you want, to ensure a good seal and to protect against mold (any potentially harmful bacteria will already be destroyed by the sugar concentration of the jelly), you can process the jars in a water bath for 5 minutes.

Ingredients you will need

Jelly

Sugar

Water

To do so, put a steaming rack at the bottom of a large, tall pot. Fill the pot halfway with water (enough to cover jars with an inch or two of water when in the pot), bring to a boil, gently place the jars in the pot (helps to use a jar lifter, tongs, or be wearing rubber gloves), boil for 5 minutes, and remove.

Ingredients you will need

Water

Equipment you will use

Tongs

Pot

Let cool. As the jelly cools you should hear a popping sound as the lids seal.

Ingredients you will need

Jelly

**Note these are the guidelines from the pectin box instructions. I found that sometimes even half as much pectin will cause the jelly to set, though perhaps not as firm as the whole amount.

Ingredients you will need

Pectin

Jelly