Concord Grape Jam is a low-sugar or low-honey cooked jam made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener.
Servings 5 cups
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Concord grapes to make 4 cups prepared grapes
- 2 teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- ½ cup up to 1 cup honey or ¾ cup up to 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin mixed with sweetener
Instructions
- Before you begin, prepare calcium water.To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well.Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Wash jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in canner, fill canner 2/3 full with water, bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and keep jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small sauce pan; cover and heat to a low boil. Turn off heat and keep lids in hot water until ready to use.
- Pop the skins off the grapes and set the skins aside. To separate the pulp and juice from the seeds, either put the skinless grapes through a Foley Mill or cook the skinless grapes with a little water, mash them up, and put through a Foley Mill or strainer. Collect all the juice and pulp and discard the seeds.
- Puree the skins in a food processor or blender. Add the pureed skins to the juice and pulp and mix together well.
- Measure 4 cups prepared grapes into sauce pan.
- Add calcium water and mix well.
- Measure sugar or room temperature honey into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sweetener. Set aside.
- Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-sweetener mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the jam comes back up to a boil. Once the jam returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.
- Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 minutes (add 1 minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
Melissa F
What size jars are recommended for this recipe?
Shelby Collings
We recommend 8oz jars.
Bridget Mulaney
Could I use coconut sugar or maple sugar in this recipe? And would it be the same measurements as the white sugar, or would I adjust it? Lots of concords to work through, and want to try a little variety in the jam!
Shelby Collings
Ys, that should work just fine! We cannot say for sure, does your product have a measuring guide on the package?
Danielle
Could I use this recipe as more of a grape jelly and just cook the grapes and then use a jelly bag to measure 4 cups of juice? Or if I would use juice and pulp would it still have more of the consistency as jelly or chunkier like a jam?
I’d like to use pomona’s pectin for my concord grapes and then process it through the canner!
Shelby Collings
You sure can! For 4 cups of juice you will need to increase the pectin and calcium water to 4 teaspoons. It is also recommended that you allow the juice to sit overnight so the sediment settles at the bottom.
Lynette
The insert instructions for sweet grape jam & jelly call for 1/4c lemon/lime juice but this recipe does not. Do Concord grapes not need added acid?
Shelby Collings
Correct, Concord Grapes do not need the additional acid.
Amanda
Total newbie here, would it work to make this a no sugar, no heat, freezer jam?
Shelby Collings
It could! You would want to follow our directions HERE for raw freezer jam.
C Jones
I just made this concord grape jam recipe. We got some free Concord grapes from the vineyard that we help pick grapes for along with a few bottles of wine. They gave me so many Concord grapes. We made this recipe times 2 and froze a bunch of grapes and are going to try to dehydrate some into raisins. This jam tastes amazingly well! I just wish it was easy to get the seeds out. That was difficult to do that. Anyone have any ideas to get the seeds out well.
Sara Wolters
Hello, I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. The Foley Mill or jelly bag is the easiest way to separate the skins and seeds from the juice/pulp.
Jamman
Ive never made jam or jelly before.. I had seed free grapes so I didn’t need to starin but did pulverize the skins in the food processor on low so as to keep the sensation of the skins present. I did substitute one tablespoon of chia seeds because I had four cups of grapes mixed with Russian olive berries (aka Autumn olive) but used then just one teaspoon of pectin. I am diabetic so I wanted to use agave nectar in lieu of honey or sugar…. but in tasting the mix, I realized a little honey was needed. I was very sparing in sweetening …like the low end of that recommended… and very glad I did because in tasting the sample with an unused (also boiled in hot water) spoon to make sure it was sweet enough, the beautiful deep flavor of the grapes came through! Not like most store bought brands…. a perfect Goldilocks concord jam! Now we wait to see if my previously non-existent canning skills didn’t ruin everything! I did not understand exactly know what “Put filled jars in boiling water to cover” meant and two of my jars were too tall for my spaghetti pot so I filled the pot as high as possible and the tops of the lids were exposed… two jar were fully submerged and I hope none of the water leaked through!
Olivia
I made an absolutely delicious Concord grape jam with this recipe and it turned out perfect, so I thought I’d give it a whirl with merlot grapes. I adjusted the recipe for the 18 pounds of grapes I had, and it said to use 12 tsp of calcium water, and 12 tsp of pectin with the sugar. Everything looked perfect throughout the canning process but unfortunately it did not set/become jam. Ia there anything I can do to salvage it and turn it into the jam I want it to be?
Shelby Collings
Oh man!! Have you checked out our troubleshooting page to try and pin point where something may have gone off track? You can find that HERE.
Shirley
HI, I tried to make my jam without pectin and it did not set. Can I put everything back in the pot and start over using Pomona’s Pectin and calcium water? Thanks – Shirley
Shelby Collings
Hello Shirley,
You sure can! You will use our directions for recooking jam/jelly without adding additional sweetener, HERE. You will use the pectin and calcium water measurements from this recipe to your batch ( 2 teaspoons Pectin and 2 teaspoons calcium water for every 4 cups of unjelled jam).
Karina
I have loads of Concord grapes frozen. Should I reduce the grapes for a while before adding pectin? Frozen fruits seem to have more liquid in general.
Shelby Collings
You can certainly use frozen fruit for your jam. It’s best to use unsweetened frozen fruit. Defrost, but don’t drain, frozen fruit before using. Generally you use the liquid from the frozen fruit along with the fruit unless you notice that there is an excessive amount of liquid, in which case you would ladle off some of the excess liquid before measuring your mashed fruit. If you are going to juice the fruit for jelly, then you would use all of the liquid.
The frozen fruit should resemble fresh fruit once it is mashed 😊 then you can measure it.
Karen
I really appreciate having both the substitute amount of honey for sugar and also having the range of sweetener to use. Tried half a cup of honey for one batch and now trying a cup for batch 2! Is there a safe amount of maple syrup you would recommend and would I increase the lemon juice at all to maintain a safe pH?
Shelby Collings
We love this message Karen, thank you!
You will not need to increase the lemon juice when using any of these sweeteners, the measurement would stay the same.
Happy jamming!
Tenniel
Could I double the recipe and add homemade apple juice as well? Or is doubling not a good idea?
Shelby Collings
You can absolutely double the recipe! If your apple juice is sweet, it will need 1/4 cup lemon juice. If it is tart, feel free to add it just as is 😊
Katherine Trapp
Late year one of my batches developed crystals. I have seen recommendations to chill the juice overnight. Any thoughts?
Shelby Collings
Yes, the juice can sit overnight to allow the sediment to settle, which should keep off the crystallization.
Pamela LaRoche
My friend suggested that instead of using a Foley food mill, we put the whole grapes in a Ninja blender and pulverize them, thus eliminating a step. Can this be done successfully? I’ve read that grape seeds are believed to contain contain strong antioxidant properties due to their high content of oligomeric proanthocyanidins complexes and other nutrients. Thanks for your help.
Shelby Collings
We believe the resulting texture may be off by doing it that way, but you are welcome to give it a try if you’d like 😊
Jen Grace
Can I cook the grapes with skin on and then put everything through a food mill?
Wondering why the xtra step of taking skin off..?
Shelby Collings
You sure can Jen!
Lynn Marshall
We have tons of muscadine grapes about to be ripe so wondering if I can use this recipe for making muscadine grape jam.
Thank you!
Shelby Collings
Hello Lynn,
We have a wonderful Muscadine Grape Jam recipe, HERE on our website. Enjoy!
Sheri Hatten
I want to make grape jelly. I have 8 cups of the juice from grapes in my garden. Not seeing a recipe on your site for grapes
Jelly. Please help
Shelby Collings
Hello Sheri,
The Grape Jelly recipe is on our direction sheet that comes with Pomona’s Pectin, or on our PDF, HERE.
Happy jamming!
Kim
I have a steam juicer and was planning to juice my Concord grapes. Would this recipe work with grape juice?
Shelby Collings
Hello Kim,
Yes, that should work just fine!
Cole
Can I use this recipe with a sweetener such as allulose?
Shelby Collings
You sure can!
Elisa
Do I need to change anything to use green grapes??
Shelby Collings
Hello Elisa,
You will just need to add 4 tablespoons lemon juice to your jam.
Our friends over at Healthy Canning have a lovely White Grape Jelly as well, if you would like to make a jelly. instead of jam.
Happy jamming!
Samantha
Could I use this recipe for cotton candy grapes, or should I use the recommendation for white grape jelly?
Shelby Collings
That sounds delicious! You will want to use the white grape jelly recipe for those. Would love to hear how it turns out!