Thread: Vines
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gene
 
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I also make jelly from wine grapes (zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon),
and no 'wasting' of good wine grapes... cuz I extract the pomace to
get my 'juice' for jelly. This Wine Jelly tastes better than any grape
jelly I've ever tasted.

After pressing, I put the pomace in a double-boiler configuration, 8
quart stainless steel spaghetti cooker (with the insert being a
perforated 'colander'). I put about 1/2 cup of water in the pot, fill
the colander with pomace, put on the lid, bring to a boil, then simmer
on lowest heat for about 1/2 hour to 1 hour. The gentle steam
extraction of the pomace from a 7 gallon fermentation batch yields 4-8
cups of wine-flavor extract. It does such a good job extracting the
flavor that the pomace tastes pretty bland after extraction.

While making the wine grape jelly from this extract, I add lemon juice
to bring up the acid to where I want it.
To maximize the flavor in the jelly, I sweeten less. I use about 2/3
the sugar compared to 'standard' recipe, and I double up the amount of
pectin to get it to jell (there's not enough sugar to get it to jell
without extra pectin). Typically I use a box of Sure-Jell plus a box of
pectin to guarantee that it will jell, but I've also had success using
two boxes of pectin (occasionally I get a 'spread' rather than a 'jelly'
when I only use pectin).

The extract also makes great tasting wine sorbet. And the extract makes
a pretty good syrup to pour on pancakes or ice cream.

Regards,
Gene

Ray Calvert wrote:
<clipped>
>
> As far as jelly is concerned, the best grape jelly is made from grapes that
> are too acid to make wine or eat either. Wild grapes do the best. Don't
> waste your good wine grapes making jelly!
>
> All in my humble opinion! ;o)
>
> Ray
>

<clipped>
>>Because I can not find out what type of grape this is, I can not buy more.
>>This vine only produced enough grapes for 5 gallons of wine and just
>>enough juice to make 4 gallons of jelly, plus what my dog would eat. I
>>caught him picking grapes off the vine and eating them. My question is
>>what is the best way to get more plants from this vine?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Roy