Concord Grape Jam

 

With my excessive amounts of Concord grapes – I knew I had to make the classic – Concord grape jam.  I am starting to feel like a canning expert – in addition to this corn salsa, I also canned peaches and tomatoes this year!  I’m not going to lie – this was a lot of work – since in addition to skinning and cooking the grapes – you have to cook everything with sugar to make it a ‘jelly’ consistency – which seemed to take longer than I thought it would.  In the midst of this – I also ran out of sugar – and thankfully I have a wonderful husband who ran out to the corner store to get me more at a moments notice.  :)

 

P.S. Grape jam makes the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich (if you don’t believe me you have to try it for yourself)!

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 pounds Concord grapes (approx. 8 cups)
• 2 cups water
• 4 1/2 cups sugar

Directions
1. Wash and stem grapes and measure out 8 cups.  Remove skins from half of the grapes.
2. In a large kettle, combine the skinned and unskinned grapes.  Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until very soft.
3. Press grapes through a sieve and discard seeds and cooked skins. 
4. Return 3 cups of strained pulp to the kettle and add in reserved grape skins and water. Cook, covered for 10 minutes over medium heat.
5. Uncover and mix in sugar. 
6. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring often. Continue to cook for 18-24 minutes, or until jam sheets off a metal spoon (reaches 220 degrees F).
7. Remove from heat and skim off any foam that may have formed.
8. Immediately ladle into hot, sterilized half-pint jars (this recipe fills 6 half-pint jars), leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims and adjust lids. Process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes.  Remove jars from canner and cool on wire racks.
Source: You Can Can
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Farmers Market Corn Salsa

This is one item that I decided to ‘can’ this year – I love the idea of being able to open a jar of pure summer fresh flavors in the middle of winter. 

I first tried my hand at canning last year, when I made some peach jam.  I have to say that canning is definitely a lot of work – you have to make sure that your jars and lids are sterilized on top of actually putting together the recipe that you want to can.  Definitely do your research on proper canning techniques and recipes if you are planning on doing this – I am definitely not an expert.  But it is definitely one of my new hobbies – and I look forward to trying out many more canning endeavors! 

This salsa contains fresh corn, tomatoes, red pepper, jalapenos, red onion and fresh lime juice – you can’t really go wrong with this combo!   I haven’t opened a jar yet to eat – since I am saving them for when I can no longer get fresh corn and tomatoes – but the bit of leftover salsa that didn’t fit into the jar tasted delicious!  Have fun and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 large ears of fresh corn
• 1 cup red onion, diced
• 1 large red pepper, diced
• 1 large tomato, peeled and diced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions

1. Remove husks and silts from corn and rinse.  Cut corn off cobs.

2. In a large saucepan combine corn, onion, sweet pepper, tomato, jalapeno, lime juice, salt, cumin and pepper.   Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 10 minutes.

3.  Transfer to hot, sterilized half-pint jars (4-5 jars), leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims and adjust lids.

4. Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes (starting when water returns to a boil).  Remove from canner and cool on wire racks. 

Source: You Can Can

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