Jelly Didn’t Set? Don’t fret!

jarsOr jam didn’t set.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m not exactly a jamming expert.  That doesn’t stop me from making jelly and jam, though.  But what does one do when the jelly doesn’t set?  How much grape syrup can a person actually use?  Quite a bit less than the amount of grape jelly a mom with two children who eat PBJ’s at least four days a week uses.

So rather than having 4 pint jars of grape syrup that just sit on the shelf with my other canned goods and never get used, I re-cook the jelly.  Once again, props to my mother-in-law who, when I called her, distraught about the wasted fruit, sugar, and time, calmly replied, “Oh, well, you just have to re-cook that” [please read that with a Minnesotan dialect]. The best part?  It is easy and you end up with jam or jelly, not another jar of fruit syrup or ice-cream topping.

Here’s the method:

  1. Empty your jars of jelly into a large bowl.
  2. Clean your jars and re-prep them for processing (I leave mine in the simmering water in the canner and pull them out right after I take the jelly off the heat).
  3. Prep NEW lids (do not re-use the lids from the batch).
  4. For every cup of jelly or jam, measure one tablespoon of water and one teaspoon of pectin into a non-reactive pot large enough to hold your batch of jam (If you made 8 1/2 pint jars of jam, that would be 8 cups).
  5. Mix this over a medium heat until the pectin dissolves, then bring it up to a boil.
  6. Slowly add the unset jelly, stirring constantly, until the pectin mixture is fully incorporated into the jelly.
  7. Bring to a rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, and boil hard for 1 minute.
  8. Ladle into jars, and process according to the original recipe instructions.

Yes, it takes a little time, but the other morning I re-cooked two batches of jelly (one grape and one crab apple) in under an hour, and now I have 10 jars of jelly that will get used as opposed to 10 jars of syrup that probably wouldn’t.

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