Grape jelly is very inexpensive. Is it worth taking a chance with juice that's several years old to save just a few dollars, at most?

My experience making grape jelly from my own grown grapes is ehh.......tastes like nothing. I even thought about putting it out for hummers.....but decided even that wasn't worth it. Our grapes were eating grapes of different varieties (Maybe could have made wine?) and I soon chose to take them out....too many to eat and no tasty way to use as a preserve. IF they were Concord Grapes.....might be a different story. Sorry, no help otherwise.

I make grape jelly every year from the grapes in my grandads backyard.

I just follow the recipe on the sure-jel box.

My friends nicknamed the jelly grape crack, they won't eat any other grape jelly and when they run out of a jar, I hear about it.

Nanny- how old is your grapevine? I only ask because I and many others have tried to figure out why my jelly tastes so much better than store bought and the only thing I can come up with is that the grapes come from a vine that was planted in the 60s.

I don't do anything special so I figure it must be the grapes coming from an old vine.

I also make good grape jelly....and use the recipe in an old cookbook. cook the grapes with just enough water to keep them from burning...like 1 cup for 5 pounds of grapes, allow the fruit to drip through a cheesecloth bag over night, and add equal measured amount of sugar to the grape juice, bring to a boil and boil until it reaches jell stage. Test on a plate you have kept in the refrigerator.
No pectin needed for grapes. A couple of times I have found wine grapes.....that's fabulous jelly!

My sister makes home-made grape jelly, it is WAY better than the commercial stuff, to me. She used to be able to find wild grapes, and then it had a little tang to it. Out of this world. But it's harder and harder to find the grapes.

Agree with lindac and adellabedella--only grape juice and sugar, and maybe a little lemon juice, depending on the fruit--no added commercial pectin. Concord grapes are my favorite, although I haven't made grape jelly in years because my kids don't seem to like it. Now that I have a son-in-law who will eat anything, I might have to make some. I used to add an apple for extra natural pectin, and have also mixed in elderberry juice, which turns biscuits blue!

bengardening....I, too, am a bit taken aback by this old grape juice of unknown provenance. Making your own jelly I totally get. Making some from years old juice isn't a good idea. The quality of preserved foods declines over time....even if the seals are still good.

I don't think I would make jelly from juice canned 'a few years ago' either. Sugar, and your time, are not free and I don't know that the effort would reflect in your finished product. It might be fine, or could be a waste...

I've cooked and reduced to juice berries when my freezer was bulging and I didn't have time to make jelly until later, but the longest I've kept the juice frozen was a few months, not years. Same with frozen berries, I'll thaw and extract the juice from berries frozen a year for jelly. While longer would be safe, it may not have the quality I want from time spent in the kitchen.

I can buy a bottle of commercial organic grape juice, no additives, at the grocery store for just a few dollars if I wanted jelly makings ;0) I rarely eat jelly or jam, although DH likes it and frequently will make himself a PB&J sandwich (little kid style)

Gosh, I'm so glad some of you have made good grape jelly. As I did say, our grapes were table grapes and when made into "jelly" they didn't have any flavor. Just ultra sweet.....sugar water to me. When we lived in the East...OH MY....those wild thick skinned Concord-like grapes were so good. Don't see many of them here in the West.

The problem with using that old "juice" canned a few years ago is that you do not know what it really is. It my not be true grape juice. It could be an artificially flavored grape drink, and that stuff will not make a jelly you'd expect.