One of my favorite things that I planted at our house in California was the pomegranate tree. It really liked the weather there and grew quickly. Last year we had just over 50 pomegranates off the tree. We made a variety of things with those to see what they were like; the favorite of everybody though was pomegranate jelly.

I only made six jars of the jelly and they were gone in a couple months. Since we had moved from that house I figured I would not be able to make that jelly again this year.

Thankfully, my job sent me to the house of an older lady with an overloaded pomegranate tree. Most of the fruit had split already and was attracting bugs. I was able to get several grocery bags full though.

My wife, oldest two sons and I removed the arils from the skin. We got enough to fill a large bowl.

The next step is to remove the juice from the arils. Pomegranates are pretty crunchy because there are a lot of seeds; I don’t like the jelly to be crunchy.

Even though the fruit has a skin I always rinse the insides before using them. Sometimes the skin has little cracks that allow bugs in. I don’t think a gnat or fruit fly floating in the jelly would make my wife happy.

My basic technique to remove the juice is to put some of the arils in the blender, and pulse them until they mostly appear broken.  Then I dump them in a sieve over a large bowl, and push out the juice.

Then I put the juice in a container until it is full.  This allows any foam that is generated to float to the top.  I remove the foam before storage.

I was able to get over 120 ounces of juice from the pomegranates that I was given.

He may not look thrilled, but Matthias does like to help me make jelly. That face is just his picture face.

Now on to making the jelly.

If you are going to be canning the pomegranate jelly, you need to prepare your jars.  Make sure they are clean, especially if you are reusing jars.  The lids need to be new to insure they seal correctly. Boil water in a large enough pot to fit your jars and lids.  Put the jars and lids in the pot of boiling water.  This will sterilize the parts.  I usually leave them in while making the batch of jelly that will be going into the pot with them.

You will also need to start a large pot of water boiling for the water bath for canning.  I am not a canning expert, so I would defer to other websites to learn more about how to can.

I used Sure-jell less sugar pectin for this recipe.  Jelly already has a lot of sugar due to the fruit juice, and all the added sugar.  I am sure you can use any pectin that you desire, just make sure you check the directions that come with it as it may differ slightly.


AuthorJoshuaCategoryJam, Preserving

Pomegranate Jelly

Makes 3-5 pints of jelly

Ingredients:
 4 cups pomegranate juice
 3 cups sugar, divided
 1 (3 tbsp) box sure-jell less sugar pectin

Directions:
1

Combine 1/4 cup of the sugar with the pectin. Add the combined pectin and sugar mixture to the pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil, while stirring to dissolve the mixture.

2

Add the remaining sugar to the pot, and return to a rolling boil for 1 minute.

3

Remove from heat.

4

Add the jelly to the sterilized canning jars.

5

Can the jelly using a water bath for 5 minutes.

6

If the jars seal correctly, your jelly should last at least a year when stored in a cool dark location.

Ingredients

Ingredients:
 4 cups pomegranate juice
 3 cups sugar, divided
 1 (3 tbsp) box sure-jell less sugar pectin

Directions

Directions:
1

Combine 1/4 cup of the sugar with the pectin. Add the combined pectin and sugar mixture to the pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil, while stirring to dissolve the mixture.

2

Add the remaining sugar to the pot, and return to a rolling boil for 1 minute.

3

Remove from heat.

4

Add the jelly to the sterilized canning jars.

5

Can the jelly using a water bath for 5 minutes.

6

If the jars seal correctly, your jelly should last at least a year when stored in a cool dark location.

Pomegranate Jelly

I had enough juice to do 4 batches of the pomegranate jelly.  Hopefully, that will end up lasting us the year.  Our family likes pomegranate jelly so much that we could probably finish it in a couple of months if we didn’t regulate our use.

These particular pomegranates had a fairly light juice.  I think it might be because they came from an older tree, and it is probably a different kind than can be bought now.  The pomegranate jelly we got was pink rather then a darker red color.  I think it makes for a pleasing look when put on toast or a biscuit.

-Joshua


This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. A_Boleyn

    Lovely jelly. And the work is all worth while esp when you have a large enough family to go through your jars in a timely fashion. 🙂

    1. Joshua

      Thank you. Definitely won’t be any of it wasted.

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