This is an easy step-by-step recipe for muscadine jelly or jam using sure jell powdered pectin or certo liquid pectin. This recipe can also be used interchangeably with scuppernongs. Cute jar label printable included!

Homemade jelly is one of life’s greatest gifts. I’m convinced of it. Even better is baking biscuits from scratch and slathering them with butter and homemade jelly on a weekend morning. Best savored with piping hot coffee and front porch views.

One of my favorite things to do in September is to make jelly. I don’t know why, but it gives me such satisfaction. And that needs to be shared! So today I’m going to walk you through making muscadine jelly. It’s pretty easy, just three main steps-making the juice, cooking the jelly, and canning. Just for fun, I’ve made these cute jar labels to share with you as a free printable. See bottom of page for printing instructions.

If you’re already a jelly making pro, here’s the recipe card. Keep scrolling for thorough details & photos if you’re the kind of person that likes those things…(I am, but not everyone does!)

If you’re asking what are muscadines?

A few years ago I made scuppernong jelly and posted the picture to instagram. Someone commented that they didn’t know scuppernongs were a real thing-they just thought it was a made up word! I was surprised to find that some southerners weren’t even sure what they were.

Scuppernongs are a type of muscadine, and muscadines are a variety of grapes, native to the Southern US. Scuppernongs are the golden color fruit in the photo below, and the dark purple one we just call muscadines.

They aren’t as easy to eat as your regular store bought variety. They have thick, tough hulls and the inside pulp is filled with seeds. But boy are they delicious! They have a unique sweet and tart flavor that really shines when made into jelly. Now that we get to enjoy that wonderful flavor year round until next muscadine season.

Muscadines are in season in late summer, early fall time frame. You can find muscadines at u-pick farms, farmers markets, your local produce stand, growing wild, even at some grocery stores (I found the scuppernongs at Aldi!). Wherever you get yours from, you’re going to need to gather at least 4 to 5 pounds to make this jelly, or about 3 quarts worth.

Scuppernongs and Muscadines have slightly different flavors but you can use either one for this recipe. The dark grapes give you a beautiful dark pink jelly and scuppernongs give a golden syrup colored jelly.

Muscadine Jam or Jelly?

Jelly is made with fruit juice, while jam contains bits of fruit or pulp in it. My recipe is technically a jam, because I don’t bother with straining the juice for hours. I’m not picky about. I don’t mind a bit of pulp. Where I come from, discarding the the tiny solids that make it through the sieve would be a sin. The bits of pulp that make it through have an apple butter consistency, but aren’t very noticeable in the final product.

If you’re into things like super clear jelly, then by all means be really careful and strain the juice through cheesecloth multiple times to get a clear juice.

Ingredients you’ll need for muscadine jam or jelly

About five pounds of muscadines, sugar, lemon juice, butter, liquid certo or sure jell powdered pectin.

You’ll notice in the pics that there are a lot of muscadines in the pot. I didn’t measure how many I used for this batch. There were a lot! I knew it was more than enough for a single batch of jelly so I used the extra juice to make another half batch.

Here’s how to make Muscadine Jelly step by step

I sometimes break this down into a few days, but you can do it all in one day. I prep the juice before hand and refrigerate it until I’m ready to make the jelly. Once you’re ready to make jelly, go ahead and set up your canning stuff first because the cooking process isn’t very long.

How to make muscadine juice:

First thing is to wash your muscadines and make sure any stems are removed. Toss any that aren’t fresh and firm looking. Add the grapes to your largest pot, and add 2 cups of water. We’re going to cook these down for about 20 minutes or so. Mash the fruits down as they’re cooking to release the juices.

Add a sieve over a large bowl and let the juice drain. Discard the large solids. The more you strain, the clearer the jelly will be. If you don’t care about this and like a jammy texture, you can do like I did and only strain once. I let the tiny bits stay in.

While the juice is draining, set up two large stock pots, one for the canning and one for the jelly.

For the canning, you’ll need a rack for the jars to sit on, 8 or 9 half pint jars (this batch made 8 1/2 for me), lids, rings, jar remover tool, clean washcloth, and a lid remover tool.

To cook the jelly using sure jell powdered pectin:

Once you’ve gotten your juice separated, add 5 cups back to your large stock pot. Add lemon juice, butter, and powdered pectin.

The mixture will foam after the pectin is added. Bring this to a rolling boil (meaning that it cannot be stirred down, it continues to boil as you’re stirring). Once it’s reached a rolling boil, add the sugar all at once and stir.

Return it to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down and boil for 1 minute (left photo below). Remove from heat, skim off any foam.

How to make muscadine jelly with sure jell’s certo liquid pectin: In your large stock pot, add 5 cups of juice, lemon juice, butter, and sugar. Bring this up to a full rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute, then add 1 pouch of certo liquid pectin. Boil for 1 minute more. Remove from heat, skim the foam and ladle into jars.

To can muscadine jelly

You’ll want to work quickly here as the jelly does start to set up and you should notice that the closer you get to the bottom of the pan, the liquid is starting to harden and look like jelly!

Ladle the jelly into hot, sterilized jars. Wipe rims and sides, then add lids and rings. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes. When the ten minutes are up, turn off the heat, and remove jars from the canner. Let them set up for 24 hours. You should hear the lids popping as they seal. Test the seals the following day, and any that didn’t seal, put in the fridge and use those first!

You’ll notice here that I’m just using my largest stock pot as a canner, with a metal trivet on the bottom so that the jars aren’t sitting directly on the bottom of the pan. I have to work in batches, just make sure that your water comes back to a boil before you add the second round of cans. For a more thorough detail on water bath canning, you can check out the step by step photos on my jalapeno jelly tutorial.

FAQ

How many jars does this recipe make?

This recipe makes about 8 and 1/2 half pint (8 oz. jelly) jars. For the little bit that’s left after filling the larger jars, I will typically use a small 4 oz. jar. You get to keep a jar, gift a jar, trade with another friend who also shares your jam making obsession. Share however you please, but please do keep some (several) for yourself.

Should I use liquid pectin or powdered?

I’ve tried both and for this recipe I prefer the liquid pectin but only for the reason that it makes less foaming-which results in just a bit less work for me. They both set up nicely, and the taste and texture of both batches were the same.

What does muscadine jelly taste like?

Muscadine jelly is similar to grape jelly but with it’s own flavor unique tart flavor. If you’ve never tried a muscadine before, it’s hard to explain the taste. But if you’ve had muscadines, just know that the jelly definitely tastes like muscadines.

Looking for more jelly recipes?

Try our sweet and spicy jalapeno jelly recipe next!

Free printable! Muscadine Jelly labels can be printed on sticker paper and cut out or printed on Avery’s kraft brown round gift labels