Homemade North Carolina Muscadine Jelly Recipe (Healthy Too!)

Homemade North Carolinamuscadine jelly is sweet and delicious…yet it’s a different kind of sweet from the jellies that you will find in the grocery store. We use the type of muscadine grape where you can use the hulls as well so this isn’t your average clear jelly it’s got lots of texture and amazing flavor. In fact you will be trying to find the best vehicle or vessel to get this jelly right into your mouth!

This year because our honey harvest was less than stellar as we are still recovering from our honeybee losses we decided this was the perfect North Carolina holiday gift. I mean who doesn’t love jelly on a nice loaf of homemade bread during the holidays. As a matter of fact we foraged for some of these grapes locally on the side of the road but the rest we purchased at a local vineyard. We are actually heading there today to get more grapes. I am not addicted to this jelly at all…nope!

Muscadine grapes are native to the southeastern and south-central United States from Florida to Delaware, west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. It has been extensively cultivated since the 16th century.(Wikipedia)But every one knows they taste better if they grow in North Carolina. Just Kidding!

 

I have to share about the health properties of muscadine grapes for one they contain ellagic acid which is being studied for it’s anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties. These grapes have been touted as offering retina protection helping to prevent vision problems at an older age even if the grapes were consumed when you were much younger. Very interesting research being done on the muscadine grape! (Natural Health 365.com The muscadine grapes we refer to as “Scuppernong” were once referred to as the Cherokee grapes by the Colonists they were the muscadine grapes that were bronze or purple black in color. Muscadine grapes have more chromosomes than your regular grape but a bonus they have 6 times the amount of reservatol in them and if you don’t know what reservatol is to sum it up compounds that provide anti infection properties, and antioxidants basically very hugely touted for their health properties. They also have 40 times the antioxidants of red grapes and contain extremely high levels of quercetin (a healthy flavonoid) and more dietary fiber than oat bran or rice. To find out more at Cancer Truth.net click here!

The particular muscadine grape that we have been using for this jelly recipe is a local grape called the “noble” group that we purchased from a local vineyard Bannerman Vineyards. They are locally owned and have a wine tasting room and truthfully they are genuinely wonderful to do business with but that’s a whole other blog post…coming soon! The owner told me that the “noble” muscadine grape has thinner hulls and is a great for jelly and he said the old timers used to call them “fox” grapes as they grew in the wild of course the noble has been cultivated but it’s delicious and it yields higher juice quantities than other grapes.

Now that you know how healthy it is now it’s time to make some of your own jelly!

Karen Lynn’s Muscadine Jelly Recipe

Ingredients:

1 gallon Muscadine grapes

4 1/2 C. sugar

1 box Sure Jell (dry pectin)

Instructions:

Rinse muscadine grapes.

Score each grape slightly on the non stem side of the grape and squeeze the flesh and seeds out of the hull into your pot or bowl…

Next make sure you remove the stem from the hull and place the hull in a separate pot. (This alone is a very long process but well worth it!

Once done heat up the grape flesh/pulp and seeds in a separate pot just till they start to break down and become kind of soupy.

Cook the hulls in a pot of water with just enough water to keep them from sticking to the bottom.

Puree the hulls in a food processor macerate the hulls and they will add tons of flavor and texture to your finished product. This is one time when the skin is good!

Next once the pulp is good and soft run all the flesh and seeds through a food mill to dispose of the seeds.

Last combine the seedless flesh/pulp with the macerated hulls and add sugar, and pectin, and boil until it gets 220 degrees.

We hope you enjoy this homemade North Carolina muscadine jelly as much as we have! We just bought 2 more gallons today! Oh and I took some pics at the vineyard too so make sure you are following Lil’ Suburban Homestead on Instagram here.

Fondly,