Our assignment for this month’s tigress can jam was to can herbs. I have lot’s of herbs in my garden so my first thought was “What a cool idea!”, but then I thought, “How do you can herbs?”
I wanted to find a unique recipe so I started looking through all of my canning cookbooks. I found an interesting recipe for wine jelly made with sherry, white grape juice and rosemary. This combination sounded very unique to me. I have rosemary growing in my garden so I decided to give it a try.
Sherried Rosemary Grape Juice Jelly
Makes: 4 1/2 cups
This jelly goes well with poultry. I thought it tasted good just plain.
The recipe is from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving. This book has become my go to book for canning in small batches.
Ingredients:
1 cup (250 mL) dry sherry
1 cup (250 mL) white grape juice
1/4 cup (50 mL) strained lemon juice
3 1/2 cups (875 mL) granulated sugar
1 pouch liquid fruit pectin
1 stem fresh rosemary, thyme or other fresh herbs
Directions:
Place sherry, grape juice, lemon juice and sugar in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and stir in pectin.
Add herb to jar before processing. I forgot to do this before I added the jelly to the jars so I added it after the next step.
Ladle into hot jars. I used 1/2 pint jars.
I added the rosemary at this point.
Process for 10 minutes. If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.
Remove the jars from the canner and let them sit overnight on the counter.
I wasn’t sure if the jelly would set, but it did. The only problem was since I put the rosemary in after I ladled the jelly in the jars, the rosemary stayed on top. If you look closely, you can see a piece of rosemary hanging down from the top jar. Next time, I’ll put the rosemary in before I ladle the jelly into the jars.
There was a little bit of extra jelly that didn’t fit into the jars so I got to taste it. It was really good!
We're making jams or pickling every month in 2010. For more info, go to tigress' Can Jam. Be sure to check out the April Can Jam Roundup.
Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy
Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:
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