While I walked around the field that surrounds our trailer this summer, I watched the choke cherries turn from this pretty shade of green, to. . .
the most beautiful shade of cherry red.
I can see that the birds beat me to a few on this stem. When we arrived this past weekend, I figured we better get what we could before we lost them all to the local wildlife! So my daughter and I each grabbed a container and filled them with beautiful ripe choke cherries. We picked 6 or 7 cups. There are all kinds of recipes for choke cherry jelly on the internet. However, I just opened the box of Certo and followed the very simple instructions there.
I put the fruit in a pot and just covered it with water. I brought it to a boil and cooked the berries until they started to all split open. I strained off all the beautiful pink liquid and then poured the cooked fruit into my jelly bag.
I squeezed as much of the liquid out as I could. It was still quite hot. Isn't the color of the juice gorgeous!
For every 3C of juice you add 6.5 C of sugar. Bring it to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Stir it so all the sugar dissolves. After boiling for 1 minute, remove it from the heat and add the 2 envelopes of Certo liquid. (2 came in one box)
I prepared my jelly jars, in the usual way, while the fruit was cooking. So they were ready for me to pour the liquid into them. From 3C of juice (one batch), I got 7 jelly jars. Choke cherries make the prettiest jelly.
Certo Tip: If you are making jelly, and notice that the box of Certo you are going to used has passed it's expiration date, you really should not use it (even if it is 10:00 at night). It will tell you on the box that the jelly won't "jell" properly if the Certo has expired...they weren't lying...they are definitely the professionals when it comes to jelly making!! I. Am. Not.
But we will eat it anyway... :0)
Hi Tanya, this jelly looks so pretty. I never tasted a choke cherry, but I love regular cherries. Have a good weekend. We are bracing for Hurricane Irene. I am a nervous wreck. xo,
ReplyDeleteTany, The color of your jelly is such a pretty pinky red! I have never tasted choke cherries, but I'll be looking out for them now.
ReplyDeleteYvonne
This sounds awesome! Very pretty!
ReplyDeleteOh, Tanya... I was wondering how I could use some of those pretty berries. Gram always made jelly from them, but I thought it would be too labour intensive. Maybe I'll give it a try. Of course after I figure out what to do with 500 squash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :S
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ReplyDeleteMMM! Yum! Thanks so much for linking up to Tuesday Talent Show! I would love to have you stop by and link up again tomorrow with more great projects!
ReplyDelete-Nikki
http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/
You added too much water. I follow my Grannie's recipe with a lot less sugar and my jelly is dark purple. After boiling the cherry's for 3-4 hours I squeeze them very hard in cheesecloth and after sitting for a few hours or overnight all the gunk settles to the bottom then the juice is dark purple. I have had a lot of people,even old farm wives, tell me it's the best jelly they have ever tasted. Getting the juice is a long dirty job, I do it outside on a gas stove with a 5 gallon pot, but well worth it
ReplyDeleteAn old cowboy
Could it be that her chokecherries are the red variety not the dark purple? I'm about to start attempt #4 on chokecherry jam--pulpier and less clear. We've had three tries that never jelled. I'm trying Certo this time!
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