Pomegranate Jelly

My absolute favorite jelly in the entire world is my grandmother's homemade pomegranate jelly. She usually makes enough that I have a steady supply all year long. And even though it's my favorite, it's not like I eat everyday. Anyway, this year I ran out - probably a couple of months ago :(
It's sad because my english muffin with cream cheese and jelly is not the same if it's not pomegranate jelly.
Lucky for me, pomegranate season just ended and my grandma has tons of juice from which to make....of course none other than yummy jelly.

Today I learned how to make the delicious, sugary, sticky stuff! YUM! And...surprisingly it was not as difficult as I expected it to be. But I will admit that I was lucked out in not being around when my grandmother juiced all of the pomegranates - which is definitely the hardest and messiest part of the job.

Ok, so here you go a step by step guide:



Take 3 1/2 cups Pomegranate juice, mix with 1 package MCP pectin (2 oz box) and a little bit of butter (like 1/4 teaspoon) - really just a sliver

Stir together and leave over med-high heat until boiling.

Once boiling add 5 cups of sugar - all at once



and stir



Again leave over heat until mixture comes to a full rolling boil (one that does not stop with stirring) see below. Once this starts set a timer for 2 minutes!



After 2 minutes turn off the heat, wait for the bubbles to go down & then scrape off some of the foam. Discard.

Now it's time to get a warm jelly jar (we has ours in a pot of hot water on the stove, but also heard you can heat the jars up in the oven)
Use a funnel & pour in the jelly!



Not pictured...but you need to wipe the rim of the jar before putting the lid on in order to ensure a good seal!



And TaDa - DONE!!! Just sit and wait for the popping noise that signifies that the lids have sealed!





And here you go....19 jars of jelly!

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This morning I woke up and came out to the kitchen to see my mom making toast. I naively assumed that she was going to have some of my wonderful, delicious homemade jelly on her toast, but no....I was wrong. Instead as I'm toasting my bread I look over to see her spreading Trader Joe's cherry jelly on her toast! Needless to say I was appalled and promptly made her feel bad about not eating my jelly.

Here's a picture of my toast this morning....YUM!



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Here's a link to the recipe we used if you want a more condensed version without all of the pictures: Pomegranate Jelly Recipe