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Making Grape Jam

So, I got enough grapes this year to make jam again. This is how everything went.

Grapes harvested

 And weighed out

Next comes the fun part. Preparing. You have to take them off of the stems & separate the innards from the skins. There I am having tons of fun. It's necessary to wear a glove on the hand that you'll use for squishing the innards out, otherwise, you'll end up with pink/purple hands.

Check out those grape guts & skins

Next, we dump the grape guts into a pot & cook them til they're all mushy

Once they've turned to mush, they'll need to be strained to get the seeds out. We don't want all those seeds in our jam.

 Look at all those seeds!

 Liquid grape guts

Next, you dump the liquid grape guts back into the pot & add the skins. Remember those skins from the beginning? Now is the time that they get used.

 Once it starts to change colour, you add the sugar in. 1 cup per pound of grapes. Since I had just over 1 1/2 pounds of grapes, I added about 1 3/4 cup of sugar. Now, you cook it with the sugar until it starts to thicken.

 Notice how the colour gets the longer you cook it?

The end result is this lovely dark colour.
Next, you make sure that your jars are clean.

See the nice clean jars? Fill up said jars with the jam & put the lids on tight.

This was a sample during the cooking process. See how nice & thick it is after it cools. Mmmm...it tastes good.

 Here's a video of the jam cooking
Making Grape Jam

That's all there's to it. Now, Here's the recipe that I used. I had found it online a few years back.

Concord Grapes Jam by DK on Oct 11, 2011

It's sweet and its slightly tart and it has the MOST AMAZING purple blue colour. From what I read online, Concord Grapes (from Concord, of course!) are less sweet than regular grapes and which you can skin easily. You can give a slight squeeze at one end and you will find the pulp readily leaving their skins. These are mostly used for their juice, Jams and jelly - remember Welch? They are also used for making pies and tarts. Due to the fact that they have large seeds they are normally not used for eating just as they are.

• Cook time: 30 min to 1 hour
• Prep time: Under 30 min
• Serves: 8+ people
• Yields: Around 5 cups

Ingredients

• 3 lbs ripe Concord Grapes
• 3 cups Sugar (see Tips)

Tips

Sugar: The book suggests using additional 1 cup (total 4 cups) if you prefer your jam sweeter. I used only 3 cups and for us it was quite sweet already.

Method

1. Wash the grapes well in cold water.

2. Pick the Grapes off their stems.

3. Squeeze them out of their skins into a stainless steel pot. It’s totally fine if a little skin stays stuck to the pulp.

4. It’s a cumbersome process indeed but it doesn't take as long as you might think. The book suggested something on the lines of 15 minutes. For me, in spite of distractions galore from a little one trying to whisk the grape from the table to trying to capture photos, it took only 30 minutes.

5. Set aside the Grape skins. You will be using them later.

6. Yay! Pink fingers! Well you might have coloured fingers even after washing them and you will be fated to remain with pink palms for the rest of your life..err..ahem! OK! Bad joke I know!

7. Place this pot of grape pulp over medium heat.

8. Cover and bring to a gentle boil.

9. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

10. When the grapes have broken down to a mush remove them from the heat.

11. Place a large bowl in the sink and set the sieve over it. Pour the grape pulp into the sieve

12. and using a wooden spoon, push down the pulp through the mesh.

13. Discard the seeds.

14. Add the grape skin to the pulp

15. and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 2 minutes wherein you will notice that the now this mixture has turned dark thanks to the colour of the grape skins.

16. Alternatively while the jam was coming to a boil, warm the sugar in a 150F oven.

17. Gradually add the warm sugar, stirring in 1 cup at a time to the pulp.

18. Bring back to a rolling boil and cook stirring constantly.  Did you look at that color? Deep purple! Looks mind bogglingly good, isn’t it?

19. How to check if your Jam is done?

1. Temperature Test – If the temperature (using a candy thermometer) shows 220ºF (or 104ºC), then the Jam is done. Make sure that your thermometer is placed vertically and the bulb is covered with the jam. The bulb should NOT touch the bottom of the pan.
2. Spoon Test – This is similar to how you test a sugar thread consistency.  Take a cool metal spoon and dip it into the boiling Jam mixture. When you life the spoon, if the Jam runs off the spoon like a syrup, then the Jam needs more cooking time. But if it is heavier and drops like slate/sheet off the spoon instead of flowing as drops, you know that the Jam is done.
3. Refrigerator Test - I mostly use this method to check the doneness of my jams. I keep a plate in the freezer and remove it when I want to test. I then pour a small amount of the boiling jelly/jam on this plate and let it sit in the fridge for few seconds. If the mixture gels /mounds and wrinkles when you push it with your finger, it's done. If runny and it does not have a body to it, then continue to cook the jam for few more minutes until it clears the nudge test.

I hope you enjoyed my little jam making adventure.

Oopsie....apparently I did not add enough sugar to my jam, so it's a bit tart. Oh well.