Thursday, August 28, 2014

Mulberry Jelly Recipe

This is a guest post by Wife. Enjoy!

So what IS Husband’s favorite way to eat mulberries? On a biscuit, of course! Husband is an expert on picking mulberries (and eating biscuits), but I am the expert on jelly making, so he’s passed the blog baton off to me for my FIRST EVER GUEST POST!

Mmmm! Here’s how to make Mulberry Jelly:


Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 c. mulberry juice (about 3 quarts of berries)
  • 1 packet powdered pectin
  • 4 1/2 c. sugar
  • 2 tsp. lemon juice + more if necessary. 

Directions:

1.  Sterilize jars & lids: Boil jars for 10 minutes, remove just before pouring in jelly. Boil rings and lids, then remove from heat, keep covered in steaming water until ready to put on jars. 

2.  Juice those berries! Boil freshly-rinsed mulberries over high heat for 10 - 15 minutes, mashing occasionally with a potato masher, then strain out the juice using a mesh strainer.

Straining cooked mulberries to make juice
Boil, mash, and strain mulberries to make juice.


3.  Make that jelly! Measure mulberry juice into a large pot. Add in pectin and stir well. Place on high heat and, stirring constantly, bring quickly to a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down. Add in sugar, continue stirring, and heat again to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.

Making mulberry jelly on the stove
It smells like mulberries in here!


4.  Test the jelly for thickness. Jelly should thickly coat a spoon. If it doesn’t, add 2 tsp. lemon juice, boil hard for 1 minute, then test again. By “thickly coat” – imagine you just dunked it in one of those chocolate fountains at the buffet. Keep adding 2 tsp. of lemon juice until you’ve reached a thick coating consistency.

Boiling mulberry jelly for thickness
That's a hard boil right there...


5.  Remove from heat; skim off foam. Pour jelly immediately into warm jars and fill to 1/4-inch from top. Wipe off jars, tightly secure lids and rings, then flip jars upside down to seal.* Yields 5 or possibly 6 half-pint jars.

Flipping mulberry jelly jars upside down to seal
Flipping the mulberry jelly jars upside down helps them seal.


*You could use a canner to seal them, but at this point, I’m tired and this works just as well.

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