Today’s guest post was written by Ed Ammons.
Middle jar is Cherry-Muscadine Jelly Ed gifted us. It is delicious!
I have gout. Not the gout that has flare-ups and a respite before it comes back again. Mine is constant. At any one time I have gout in some part of my body, usually more than one place. Along with taking Colchicine, Diclofenac, and ibuprofen, I had been drinking tart cherry juice for quite a few years, and it seemed to have helped but it hurt my stomach. I tried mixing it with water which only compounded the problem.
A few years ago someone gave my son some muscadine juice which he shared with me. I liked the taste of it and bought some. I drank it for a while before it dawned on me to mix it with the tart cherry juice. The mixture of flavors made a palatable drink with medicinal properties although I still had some heartburn.
A couple of years ago while reading about gout on the internet I discovered Allopurinol and asked my doctor to let me try it. It worked! Now I have the same relief without the stomach irritation. And now I’m stuck with a stockpile of tart cherry and muscadine juice. I don’t want to waste it. Nobody wants it.
Then the bulb lights up again! Make it into jelly! Some people like it, some love it, Granny Wilson said it was the best jelly she’s ever tried, nobody has expressed displeasure! I call it a success. Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try.
Cherry-Muscadine Jelly
- 2 cups of tart cherry juice
- 1 ½ cups of muscadine juice
- 4 ½ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon of butter (optional)
- 1 package of Sure-Jell Fruit Pectin
I used Smart Choice Organic “not from concentrate” tart cherry juice.
For the muscadine juice I used Mighty Muscadine “not from concentrate” 100% juice.
I used salted butter because a pinch of salt brings out the flavor of everything. Unsalted butter would be fine.
Put the juices in an eight-quart stockpot and add the butter. Add the pectin and turn the burner as high as it will go. When the mixture reaches a rolling boil stir it for 1 minute then dump in the sugar all at one time. I stir the mixture until it reaches a rolling boil again. I briskly stir the rolling boil for exactly one minute then take it off the heat and ladle it into a clean ½ pint jar up to ¼ inch below the rim. Wipe the rim and put on a clean lid. Allow jelly to cool and seal. If any don’t seal just put them in the refrigerator and eat them first.
This recipe makes 6–½ pint jars with almost another one.
For those jars I made to give away I took the extra step of canning them in a water bath process for 5 minutes.
I would have never thought of mixing cherry and muscadine together, but I’m sure glad Ed did because his jelly is delicious. If you make it I know you’ll be glad you did!
Last night’s video: Rescuing the Yard, Pruning Tomatoes & Chocolate Gravy.
Tipper
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Tipper, when I was a young girl, my mother made lots of kinds of jelly. She made a very good grape jelly that she added a couple of cherry tree leaves while it was cooking. Then she heard that cherry tree leaves are toxic. So, she never did that again. Can you tell me if they are toxic. All seven of us children never got sick when we ate the jelly.
Edith, I’m sorry I don’t know if they are or not. Hopefully someone who does will chime in with the answer 🙂
Cherry leaves are toxic to cattle and other animals if they eat too many. They can make people sick too but who in their right mind is going to fill their belly with cherry leaves. I am sure that a couple of leaves in a run of jelly isn’t going to hurt anybody.
Thanks Tipper and Mr. Ammons. I was mistaken about it being grape jelly, it was apple jelly that she put the leaves in. Sure was a good taste to it.
Wonderful ! Thank you for sharing !
Cousin Ed, I’m truly sorry to hear about your problems with gout. I’ve had a occasional flare up in my left heel (of all places) but they subsided quickly. I can’t imagine having gout like you describe.
I haven’t found a source for the ingredients you describe, but I’ll continue to look. I’ve had some success making apple scrap jelly (after learning about from Tipper) and the cherry/muscadine sounds intriguing. Thanks for the recipe.
Robert, I don’t know where you live, but I found a listing for both of the juices on the Food Lion grocery store website. If FL has them, other stores would probably also have it. I bought the tart cherry juice I have been drinking at FL.
I’ve never had Muscadine juice, that I recall. I’ve drank Tart Cherry juice many times because I was told it relieved joint pain and it did seem to help, but caused acid reflux, so I stopped drinking it. I’ll have to look for Muscadine juice to give it a try mixing it with Tart Cherry juice. I don’t eat very much jelly, so it’s doubtful I’d make the jelly, but I’m sure it taste good.
This jelly sounds like a delicious recipe. I have never tried muscadine juice. I always buy Concord grape juice. I also love tart cherry juice. Sounds like something I need to try. Thanks for the recipe idea.
I’ve heard of muscadine but have never eaten any. This jelly mixed with the tart cherry does sound interesting though.
I love Muscadine Jelly but unfortunately being diabetic I can no longer eat my jams and jellies I’ve made all these years. Recently I came across a granular sugar substitute (Allulose) that taste just like sugar and has no aftertaste and no side effects for me. So, I decided to try and make some jelly with this substitute. It did not set up and so I wound up with a thin syrup. After doing some research I found out that Sure Jell won’t set properly without out real cane sugar. However, I did discover a pectin I had never heard of, and I was able to salvage my batch of blackberry syrup and turn it into some very delicious sugar free jelly. The name of this pectin is Pomonas Universal Pectin and while I found it at a country store here in Texas, I was able to buy it on Amazon much cheaper. I also buy my Allulose from Amazon in 5 lb. bags, but it is not cheap by any means. Although if you are diabetic and want your sweet stuff then there are alternatives but sometimes, they are a little costly.
Thanks Tipper, for this story from ED.
“Words ending in “-ose” are almost always sugars (carbohydrates) in scientific contexts. If you see a word ending in “-ose,” it’s a safe bet it’s a sugar!”
Allulose is a sugar too. I’m not saying it’s not safe for diabetics, just please be careful.
Glad you’ve found something that helps, Ed. That picture brings back so many memories of my grandma’s hard work in the kitchen. She and the neighbors shared their bounty and canned everything they could. Grandma had a whole wall in the basement lined with shelves of home-canned fruits and vegetables. We were always sent home with some goodies. My favorites were her yellow squash pickles, blackberry jam, apple butter, and green beans. I’ve never had anything quite as good as those squash pickles.
Ed, I had gout in my foot and especially one toe back in April. I am hard headed/stupid and would not go to a doctor but hurt so bad I didn’t want a bed sheet to touch my foot, I was using an ice pack and ibuprofen trying to get some relief before hearing about Tart cherry juice. Drinking the juice helped cure it. I think the cherry juice I bought is the same juice you mentioned. I did not know you could buy muscadine juice, but since I like muscadine jelly, I may try making me some jelly if I can find the juice. Now that I am better, I stopped drinking the juice and found some tart cherry juice supplement at Walmart and started taking one pill a day of it. Thankfully I have had no stomach problems. I have heard eating seafood/fish is bad for the gout. I ate some fresh stripe bass a week ago and for a couple days my toe wanted to hurt a little bit. Eating seefood food is a problem for me, whenever I SEE food, I want to eat it!