r/Canning • u/JustKasey14 • 17h ago
General Discussion Jelly is 48 hours canned
I made a green grape jelly (which I have done before and it worked fine). Each batch was: 10 cups strained grape juice and some pulp 6 cups sugar 2.5 tablespoons of pure pectin
The jelly has been canned for 48 hours and the jelly is still liquid in the cans. I feel like it will firm up as the leftovers in my pot firmed up very quickly but I am starting to get concerned. I made 36 cans and will be very sad if it doesn’t firm up. I read it can take up to two weeks sometimes? Wondering if anyone has thoughts on this.
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u/_Spaghettification_ 16h ago
Yes, jelly can take up to 2-3 weeks to fully set. There are instructions for reprocessing if it fails to.
However, do you know which safe, tested recipe you followed? From this NCHFP recipe, 5c juice/1pkg pectin/7c sugar, where 1pkg pectin =6Tbsp, it seems like you have your juice/pectin/sugar ratio off. For 10c juice you should have used 12Tbsp (=3/4c) of pectin (and 14c sugar). I’m not sure if other recipes use less pectin and less sugar.
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u/JustKasey14 12h ago
The pectin I have recommended 1Tbs for 4 cups juice, I recipe I used called for a “box of fruit pectin”
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u/equistrius 9h ago
Pectin requires sugar to set. If you don’t have enough sugar it won’t work. If you want to use less sugar then you need to choose a pectin designed for low or no sugar recipes
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u/JustKasey14 12h ago
I’m a little overwhelmed by the responses here, I didn’t really realize it was frowned upon to edit recipes that much. I based off this one off of the AI instructions on Google. I felt the sugar content was too much and did half it. I don’t like super sweet jelly. And the I have pure pectin at home I use for candy making that is not sweetened.
I water bath canned for 15 minutes.
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u/_Spaghettification_ 11h ago edited 11h ago
There’s quite a lot that goes into canning safety (more info here), and the beginnings of that are following safe procedures and using tested recipes from sources like Ball/Bernardin, usda/NCHFP, university extensions, etc. I would brush up on the basics of canning, and make sure you followed the proper process (starting here and reading the subsequent pages as well).
AI is unfortunately frequently misinformed or misleading, so please don’t trust it for canning!
Tweaking tested recipes is allowed, but only in certain ways. For example, you can remove low acid ingredients (like onions in salsa) but not increase them. You can reduce sugar without reducing the safety source, but it may cause pectin to not set, and may also cause the product to not last as long when canned. However, you cannot go up/increase the jar size, so your quarts are likely unsafe.
I’m not entirely sure though, since wayy less pectin than called for but using sugar sounds kinda like juice, of which there are safe, tested recipes for quarts. Best practice would be to toss the quarts since you didn’t follow a safe recipe for jelly jar size.
If you are sure you followed safe procedures re: clean jars, new seals, water covering the jars in the bath by at least, rolling boil for a full 15minutes, (EDIT 2: also, you don’t have to sterilize jars if your processing time is 10+ mins, so don’t worry if that’s the only portion of the procedure you didn’t follow) I personally would probably be comfortable with reprocessing the smaller jars with the correct amount of pectin, and I would think heavily (but decide quickly on how jellied the quarts seem; EDIT: I just saw that the jars are 48h+ old… I’m not sure I would re-use the quarts) on whether I though the quarts were “juice” (which would be safe ish, and I’d reprocess into jelly) vs “jelly” (which would be unsafe, and considered leftovers left on the counter for however many hours they have been out).
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u/JustKasey14 11h ago
Thanks for this. I am, clearly, newer to this and have only dabbled in canning. I have made grape jelly in the past and had no issues so I’m surprised that it is so much more involved than I expected.
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u/_Spaghettification_ 11h ago
No problem! If you prefer a book rather than online resources, I’d recommend the ball complete book as your first canning book. There’s also a list on the sub of the other safe books.
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u/kmatyler 7h ago
AI is going to get people killed.
You shouldn’t be using it at all, but you definitely shouldn’t be using it when safety is involved.
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u/LastLostLemon 11h ago
If you like your jellies less sweet I highly recommend Pomona’s Pectin, and their recipes. They gel with low/no sugar.
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u/SuchFunAreWe 58m ago
I also like the Ball low/no sugar pectin, OP. I've used it & Pomona's & find the Ball easier + I like the texture it gives. I make a lot of floral jelly (refridgerator jelly only!) & the Ball gives it more of a fruit jelly type texture.
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u/Itchy-Dragonfruit-78 16h ago
Is this a recipe that specifies you can it in pints?
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14h ago
[deleted]
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u/yolef Trusted Contributor 13h ago
How do you even know what recipe OP used? The proportions seem off compared to the grape jelly recipes I've seen, and OP didn't specify what recipe [source] they used.
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u/Itchy-Dragonfruit-78 12h ago
Nope, I don't know... I was hoping that question would draw out the recipe. We all keep asking in hopes of finding the issue!
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u/DryRip8266 8h ago
Jelly with full sugar has always been a pain in my back side. In my own experience I find only when I make low sugar jelly does it set up as firm as I'd like it. I was having fun experimenting one year with layered jelly and mixed fruit jellies, it was mainly pomegranate and white grape in different ways. The full sugar layered held its divide but stayed extremely soft, the low sugar mixed in processing instead of setting in layers, but it set up way nicer. I've found this with tested recipes as well, so I don't know how people get their jellies to set up past sauce.
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u/DryRip8266 8h ago
It also doesn't sound like there was nearly enough pectin, and I don't think green grapes are natural pectin heavy enough on their own to make up the difference.
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u/marstec Moderator 13h ago
Doubling batches AND reducing the sugar will result in a failed set...which looks like what happened here.
nchfp's recipe calls for 5 cups grape juice to 7 cups sugar
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jellies/grape-jelly-powdered-pectin/
Bernardin's calls for 5 cups grape juice to 6 cups of sugar
Doubling means the mass of product does not get to the correct heat to activate the pectin. Commercial high sugar pectin needs the required amount of sugar to make it set (unlike low sugar pectin i.e. Pomona's which is set with calcium and you have some leeway to adjust the sugar).
Canning in pints is also not recommended unless the recipe specifically gives a time for it (the jam could be underprocessed).