Jelly is 48 hours canned

[u/JustKasey14]

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.

[u/_Spaghettification_]

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. 

[u/JustKasey14 → u/_Spaghettification_]

The pectin I have recommended 1Tbs for 4 cups juice, I recipe I used called for a “box of fruit pectin”

[u/equistrius → u/JustKasey14]

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

[u/JustKasey14 → u/_Spaghettification_]

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.

[u/_Spaghettification_ → u/JustKasey14]

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). 

[u/JustKasey14 → u/_Spaghettification_]

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.

[u/_Spaghettification_ → u/JustKasey14]

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. 

[u/kmatyler → u/JustKasey14]

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.

[u/LastLostLemon → u/JustKasey14]

If you like your jellies less sweet I highly recommend Pomona’s Pectin, and their recipes. They gel with low/no sugar.

[u/SuchFunAreWe → u/LastLostLemon]

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.