This is the first batch out of the water bath. I ended up with 12 of these tiny jars and enough leftover after I ran out of jars to put in another container in the fridge for him to eat first.

Fab! Freezing sounds wise.

I had to look up scuppernong. Thanks for teaching me a new word. Congrats on the jelly.

Congratulations!! There is a wonderful Harvest forum right here on Houzz. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/harvest Also this is the site I use all the time when I can: https://nchfp.uga.edu/#gsc.tab=0 It has a lot of step by step instructions and includes a section on how to tell when your seals are good. It sounds like you did a great job, but some people who are just beginning will actual can water just as a confidence builder and test drive (just in case you decide to get a pressure canner for canning meats and veggies). I hope you will continue canning and enjoy it.

I had to google the word too LOL Well done. I've never made jelly.

I also Googled. Does it taste like grape?

Yes. It tastes like a wild grape.

It IS a grape. It is a native grape.The bronze we always called scuppernong and the purple muscadines. The bronze is self fruiting. The purple is not and needs at least on bronze to set fruit. They are however, the same grape.

https://nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu/nat/2020/08/27/when-is-a-muscadine-a-scuppernong/

ETA: My FIL always made the purple jelly. It is not as purple as the commercial you buy and it has a bit milder taste. My maternal grandmother had a trelllis of both just outside of Mobile, AL.

They don’t taste anything like you think a grape should taste like. The skin is thick and bitter and the seeds are also very bitter. My husband likes them but I won’t touch them.

About Scuppernongs

You don't eat the skins or the seeds.

I eat the skins on Muscadines. It is sour and a nice contrast to the sweet flesh. I don't like regular grapes but love these. I haven't seen Scuppernongs since I lived in Florida, but Muscadines show up in Chinatown for about three weeks a year. I bought some a few days ago.

If I ever see any fresh again, I will have to try the skins.

Congratulations on the jelly 🙂

FWIW, I've had full canning jars split when frozen - the contents need some airspace to expand.

And not just bitter - muscadine/scuppernong skins are super astringent. I have one small vine with dark purple-ish fruits, never enough for cooking, but enough for a little snack, and the way to eat them fresh is to squeeze and pop the innards into your mouth, discard the skins, and spit out the seeds.

Do not freeze your jelly. It isnt necessary for safety for it to even have sealed but It keeps longer that way. You can tell if it is sealed by pressing the lid as explained by Sherry. People traditionally used wax or even just tied parchment over their jelly and jam. It is not like canned beans. It is not going to potentially poison you. it is possible that freezing could make your perfectly safe jelly go gummy. Still edible of course.

IME of pther people's preserves, improperly sealed jars go moldy, though Floraluk puts hers in the cupboard without canning. I didn't know about frozen jelly going gummy. That's a shame.

I have frozen jelly in my freezer now. And have every year for years. Homemade strawberry jam, apple jelly and concord grape jelly as well. My sister makes it. I haven't had experience with it being gummy. But I would hate to ruin my first attempt, especially as the jelly was a labor of love for my SO.

Amylou -- You are so sweet with your labor of love for your SO! I have only made fresh strawberry freezer jam, not regular jelly, but my mother made grape jelly from the wild vines along our stone walls, and wonderful crab-apple jelly from a very old tree behind the barn cellar (said tree sadly blew down during a hurricane back in the 50s -- I saw it happen and cried at the sight). I well remember seeing the huge cheesecloth bag of cooked grapes hanging from a wooden broom handle suspended over a large bowl to capture the juice! Of course, the fact that it was hot and humid weather at jelly-making time makes me cringe -- not my idea of fun at all, so I never do it now. But thanks for the memories!!

I would not freeze it. You will know if jam is bad because it will mold. But, as Patricia said, jam is not like canned low acid veggies or meat, it is not going to harm you. Former generations didn’t even water bath can it. The just poured the hot jam in jars and poured parafin on the top to seal out air. If there is no give in the center of the lid, it is sealed. To familiarize youself with sealed vs unsealed, just take an empty jar and screw on the lid. Tap your figer on the lid. It will give and it will sound tinny. Then tap the lid of each of your jars. Sealed ones won’t give and if you tap them with your fingernail, they will give a dull thunk. If one appears to move, but then seals when you push on it, keep that one in the fridge, as it might not be a good seal. Don’t ever test them until they are completely cool.

I think the pop, pop, pop of lids as they come out of the canner is a joyful sound!

PS. I always freeze berries in the summer to make jam when the weather cools. And they give up more juice after they are frozen.

I do think it odd to freeze jelly. Freezer jam recipes are made to be frozen of course and contain less sugar and are cooked less so wont keep otherwise but sugar is a preservative and you went the extra route of water bathing your jelly which is good insurance against mold which is what you want to guard against. Jelly does not get botulism which is the danger in canned foods. I could qualify that a little. Grapes are more than sufficiently acidic to be safe. I suppose there is some non acidic fruit. Apples are also acidic and any average berry like black berries and strawberries etc. I used to make a lot of jams and jellies. I even made sweet meats-jams and jellies made so thick and dense you sliced them. Medieval sweets. Very interesting to do.

You can put jelly, jams, or preserves in the refrigerator and they last for years. I cook, put in sterilized jars hot, seal, and let cool. Then just put in frig. I have a bonus frig in the garage that they go into.

ETA: Growing up, we made jelly and jam, put in sterlized jars. Then covered with parafin wax. The lids were just to protect the wax. We DID NOT use a presure cooker or even a water bath. When you opened a jar of jelly and there was not enough parafin used, you just removed the parafin and used a small spoon to remove mold if any. No one died or even got sick at all.

The NCHFP has done a lot of testing to back up their instructions for canning. Please be aware that there are a lot of unsafe practices being circulated, so bypassing those and using proven NCHFP recipes and procedures can help keep you safe. Here is NCHFP info on storage: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/storing_jams.html

Lucille, I know now they say different, and I do follow the new rules. BUT, there was nothing wrong with the old ones. My great great grandparents, great grandparents, parents, and myself used the old rules and I am 71 years old.

ETA: I have never gotten sick off of jelly or jam.

I follow NCHFP suggestions to the very letter when pressure canning, but have never been too concerned about fruit jams or jellies. If they mold late, you'll know you had a problem. That 'canning' time is really just to seal the lids. Press don't tap on the lids. Any not sealed will sound different - you'll know, you are not a novice with food ;) Or with items found in the kitchen.

Congrats on your effort with the scuppernong. I've never seen one ;) We are not great consumers of jam or jelly, only occasionally. I used to make raspberry jelly for our BIL every year but have somehow gotten away from that and haven't done it recently. I would freeze products for jelly and jam than thaw and make the product later when weather cooler and I wasn't so busy enjoying the nice days.

There are recipes made specifically for freezer jam, and recipes made to be cooked and jarred. I'm not sure I would freeze jarred jam or jelly and can't see the need.

Quite young, I was making a freezer jam recipe for the first time and it sounded like so much sugar, I omitted some. Big mistake. The texture was all wrong and I should have followed the written directions.

Congratulations on the successful jelly-making! It looks perfect. I ised to make jelly of some tyoe almost every summer, but don’t eat it now like we used to so I quit putting in the time and effort. It is so good though. My grandmas always made scuppernong and muscadine jelly as well as many others. Back in the day everyone shared their harvest, whatever it was.

Our county extention office offers canning classes a couple of times a year. We have muscadines and beauty berries growing in the woods behind our house. I’ve never seen an actual grape on the muscadine vines.

Congratulations on getting into the jelly business! Just a quick word of explanation regarding "Floraluk puts hers in the cupboard without canning". I only make traditional jams, jellies and chutneys which contain enough vinegar and/or sugar to not go off. Not canning these products is standard practice over here. I wouldn't dream of treating any other preserves this way.

I meant to add, when I first learned jelly-making I learned the paraffin method of sealing the jelly. It really was pretty easy once you got the hang of it, and I never had any jelly/jam spoilage. I used an aluminum pie plate to melt the paraffin and an old spoon to spoon it into the jars. Like any other canned goods you just store in a cool, dark place and it is fine. We consumed it pretty fast and I would give away a few jars.

I wouldn’t put any glass in the freezer but ymmv.

Outside, I can remember making jelly in high school home ec and sealing it with melted paraffin. What a brave teacher that must have been with a room full of giggling clumsy girls - seems like it was washed soup cans sat into a pot of boiling water. . I think it was her first year teaching out of college and she wasn't that many years older than us.

We really did cook real food in that class. There was a cooking station for about every two or three of us and we shared the assigned stoves and counter spaces.

Congratulations, amylou! Of course, I would have never doubted that you could do it.

I also wouldn't freeze the jelly. I do make strawberry freezer jam, but it is uncooked. I think freezing makes jelly a bit watery, although it's still a heck of a lot better than the store stuff, which mostly tastes purple. Or red, depending on the "flavor" it's supposed to be.

If you look at the jar lid, you can see whether the little bump in the middle of the lid is up or kind of sucked down making an indentation. If it is up, it will move up and down and maybe even click when pressed. If it's down, it's sealed.

As has been mentioned, jam/jelly used to be sealed with a layer of paraffin. However, even the smallest air bubble could allow leakage and the stuff molded. I was terrible at paraffin, and even set a pan of it on fire once, I far prefer to slap a lid and ring on the jar and put it into the canner. However, I wouldn't hesitate to eat jelly that someone else sealed with paraffin, if it isn't moldy or spoiled, which you can tell by using your senses. If it's bad, throw it away, although it hurts to lose perfectly good jelly after all that work.

I'm sure your SO is loving that jelly. What's next? PIckles? Spiced fruit? Syrup for pancakes? Food in jars, it's a beautiful thing, LOL.

Annie