Easy Grape Jam
I can’t tell you how excited I am about this Easy Grape Jam recipe that I developed this week. My local supermarket was selling boxes of multi-coloured grapes this week and obviously bought in too many so I found myself picking up a couple of boxes reduced to 90 p each from £3 (which was already a bargain for a kilo of grapes). When I got home I washed one of the boxes of grapes and soon realised that we wouldn’t be able to eat them all before they started to perish. So what was I going to do with the rest? Well hello, Crazy Jam Lady here, of course I decided to make jam, it’s what gluts of fruit were made for!
So I started researching recipes for grape jam and the majority were American. Some suggested peeling the grapes, “hello, I don’t do faff” I thought to myself, peeling near on 2 boxes of grapes would have taken an age! Then there was a more sensible solution I came across where you used a stick blender to pulverise the skins so no need to peel, that sounded far more sensible I thought. I didn’t find one recipe that told me all I needed to know, many used pectin and none said how long to boil the jam for, it was either “use a jam thermometer” or “boil until it looks right” and many recipes added water which I decided wasn’t necessary as grapes are basically water in a skin!
So I plotted out my recipe and used my Simple Blueberry Jam recipe as a guide because blueberries and grapes are quite similar after all, grapes just have tougher skins which is why the blending is necessary. Well blow me down the recipe worked to perfection! I’d also bought 3 Mason jars I’d found going cheap (79 p each can you believe) and the Easy Grape Jam filled the 3 jars exactly, I couldn’t believe it! It was like this jam was just meant to be.
I waited until the next day to try the jam and having heard so much about peanut butter and jelly I decided to give the family a cracker each with peanut butter and my Easy Grape Jam. They all loved it and hubby who had doubted that grape jam was even a thing was gushing with compliments – I do love it when I’m right about something, don’t you! He kept saying he’d never had grape jam before and how wonderful it was. Well I’ve never had it either and I have to say it is fabulous!
As I realise this recipe will have wider global appeal I did think about converting it to cup measurements as I’ve been getting quite a few requests from across the pond for these lately. However on testing out an online conversion chart which said 100g of whole grapes was equal to 1 cup I found that it was in fact 142 g and I’m sure depending on the size of the grapes one could get many differing results. So don’t think me mean when I don’t rush off to do the conversion for you, I just don’t want to be responsible for misinformation which could lead to inaccurate results. Not all cooking is a precise science but jam making really is. So instead I have converted the recipe to pounds and ounces and suggest if you want to achieve perfect results then a set of electronic scales really is the way forward.
I really hope you try my Easy Grape Jam recipe as I’m sure you’ll be blown away by it just like we were! For more grape recipe inspiration you might also like the following:
Pork in Grapes
Chicken Fiesta
Coronation Chicken Salad
Chicken Salad for One
Grape & Red Onion Chicken Drumsticks
Seared Paprika Salmon with Rosemary Grapes
Grilled Pork Chops with Orange & Grape Salsa
Spinach, Grape & Blue Cheese Salad
Fried Halloumi Salad with Baked Pomegranate Grapes
Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Lentils & Grapes
Red Grape & Rosemary Focaccia
Fat Free Greek Yogurt Fruit Brulee
Frozen Grapes on a Stick (Easiest-Ever Grape Popsicles)
2 Ingredient Instant Frozen Yogurt(vegan)
Lemon Panna Cotta with Grapes 2 Ways
Why not pin for later?
Easy Grape Jam - just 3 ingredients & no pectin!
Ingredients
- 1.7 kg / 3 lb 12 oz seedless grapes I used equal quantities or red, black & green grapes
- 1 kg / 2 lb 3 oz granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Place grapes, sugar and lemon juice into a preserving pan or similar.
- Using a gentle heat dissolve the sugar slowly, stirring frequently.
- As the mixture heats up break up some of the grapes with your wooden spoon or use a potato masher in order the release the grapes’ juices.
- Once all the sugar has dissolved fully (around 20 minutes) take the mixture off the heat and use a stick blender to blend the grapes to a juice like consistency.
- Put pan back on the heat, bring to a rolling boil and then time for 25 minutes, stirring continuously. (You could start with 23 minutes as depending on freshness and variety of grapes the setting time can vary a little).
- Take the pan off the heat and test for set by placing a few drops of the jam on a chilled saucer and place in fridge for a minute.
- The jam should form a crinkle when you push your finger through it.
- If not then boil for another 2 minutes and re-test until set is achieved.
- Pot up in hot jars and place lids on immediately.
- Store in a cool dry place and once opened keep in fridge.
Recipe Notes
Before you start:
Put 2 - 3 saucers in the freezer.
Sterilise 3 x 0.5 ltr jars by washing in hot soapy water (or take straight from dishwasher), fill with boiling water, empty and then place in oven for 20 minutes at 140°C where you leave them until the jam is ready. Washed lids should be sterilised with boiling water and then left to drain.
As I said on FB, this jam is delish! One of my laddies doesn’t do jams with bits or sweet jams, so he tasted this jam and it got the thumbs up. I have used up all the grapes that were given to me (carrier bag full) but ran out of lemons for the juice but luckily I had a couple of limes in the fridge…..some more jam to go into the homemade Christmas hampers!
Excellent, thank you so much for your feedback, glad it was such a success:-)
Great recipe. Much simpler than one I was going to use
I did exactly what you recommended and it worked really well —- using fairly small but very sweet white grapes from my garden. Thank you !
Peter
Great Peter, so glad you liked it:-)
HI am I correct in readimg you dont actually strain your pulp? Thx Hoping to try this x first time today.as havevglut of grapes…
Yes you are correct, no straining takes place.
Thank you so much for this recipe worked really well and tastes amazing!. I used green grapes from the garden and whilst it took just over an hour I cut grapes in half and removed seeds before starting the recipe. Timing you gave worked perfectly for setting.
Excellent Louise, so glad you liked the recipe. And well done on de-seeding all those grapes, that’s dedication to the cause:-)
We have home grown tiny black grapes with seeds so I like the idea of heating them and then sieving but what do I do about the skins? In the recipe you pulp them but if sieving they are likely to get left behind with the pips. Does that matter?
Hi Jackie, no it won’t matter, some people peel their grapes for jam making! You could try putting them in a blender and then putting through a sieve but you might get bits of pip going through too so maybe not such a great idea!
I have grown pounds of sweet tadt but rry tiny grapes in my greenhouse.. but they are loaded with seeds. I don’t want to throw the grapes away. Any ideas anyone????
You could sieve the grapes then. I would heat them up along with the lemon juice until softened, sieve and then heat up the pulp along with the sugar until it dissolves and then carry on with the recipe.
I put mine through victorious strainer after heating. Worked marvelously!
Fab Peggy, glad you liked it:-)
Just made this grape jelly yesterday, without Pectin. It worked beautifully and tastes delicious. Glad I found this recipe.
Fabulous Edith, so glad you liked my Grape Jam, thank you so much for your feedback:-)
I just cannot understand why Americans insist in using arachaic measurements like cups. Don’t they have scales over there? Anyway what cup do you use, egg cup, tea cup, coffee cup, bra cup? A cup is meaningless.
Please step into the 21st century..
A cup is a 250 ml measure and you can buy sets of cups but as you say they are so inaccurate which is the reason I won’t give cup measurements.
How does this work without pectin? I’ve made grape jam a few times but always with pectin and even then it’s difficult to get it to set. Any tips?
Hi Ben, I don’t use pectin in any of my jams, but in low pectin jams I use lemon juice which aids the gel formation.