Grape-Hull Preserves

Deep Run Roots

I've made strawberry preserves before, many times (and have a video of making it on my channel, too!) Last year I had lots of peaches, so I made some spiced peach jam. At one point I made a bit of fig jam, too. But I had never made grape preserves before I tried this recipe.

Muscadine grapes taste, to me, a lot like the Concord grapes that are the basis for most grape-flavored foods and drinks. And, like Concord grapes, it's easy to slip the flesh out of the skins when they're ripe. This recipe starts with doing just that, but save the skins because you'll be needing them later. Personally, when I make this recipe again, I'll be chopping those hulls up, roughly, before I add them in to the strained pulp. My grapes were very large, and those didn't make for a very spreadable end result.

You don't even need pectin for these preserves, and the recipe makes such a small batch you don't have to worry about canning it; just put it in an airtight container in the refrigerator and you'll have fresh grape preserves for an extra-special PB&J.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather on this episode it is once
[00:09]: again
[00:10]: muscadine grape season and we are going
[00:13]: to be making grape hull
[00:15]: preserves so i've already done some of
[00:18]: the work oh i'm sorry this is out of
[00:20]: um deep run roots from uh vivian
[00:23]: howard's cookbook and it's she's got the
[00:26]: whole muscadine grape section which
[00:28]: we've made several recipes before i'll
[00:30]: link them all somewhere here probably at
[00:32]: the end and maybe below we'll see
[00:35]: um
[00:37]: i've already done some of the work here
[00:39]: uh it's i think just sort of the
[00:41]: beginning of muscadine grape season some
[00:44]: of mine were not super ripe but this
[00:46]: recipe will be fine
[00:48]: um when they're ripe enough they are
[00:50]: easier to squeeze the pulp out which is
[00:53]: what we need to do in the beginning but
[00:55]: i saved one to show you guys so
[00:58]: the stem end is usually where it pops
[01:01]: open easiest if it's not popping open
[01:05]: very easily you can use your fingernail
[01:08]: if you have them i don't have great ones
[01:10]: to sort of open it up a little bit and
[01:12]: then squeeze but so you just
[01:14]: squeeze it
[01:15]: and all of the pulp and the seeds and
[01:18]: the juice will come out and we want to
[01:20]: keep these holes because because we're
[01:22]: going to use them
[01:24]: in these preserves so this is supposed
[01:27]: to make okay i'm making half of a recipe
[01:29]: because i just didn't have enough
[01:31]: uh grapes to make the full recipe
[01:35]: supposedly the full recipe makes one
[01:37]: pint which is
[01:39]: this i believe
[01:41]: um
[01:44]: it seems like it'll make more than that
[01:45]: but you know we'll see
[01:47]: uh i don't think i think this won't make
[01:49]: more than a pint but i feel like the
[01:51]: whole recipe might make me work we'll
[01:53]: see but this is a pretty easy recipe all
[01:56]: i'm trying to do right now is bring this
[01:58]: up to a simmer
[02:00]: i've had it on medium heat here for
[02:03]: just a little bit
[02:05]: she doesn't say
[02:07]: what heat to use for this
[02:12]: so i guessed at a medium
[02:14]: simmer on my stove is usually a little
[02:16]: bit below medium so i might have to turn
[02:19]: it down in just a minute but so all
[02:21]: we're trying to do right now is um
[02:24]: simmer these for about five minutes to
[02:27]: loosen up the pulp
[02:28]: and be able to get the seeds out we're
[02:31]: going to strain these i'm just going to
[02:33]: use the same
[02:35]: um
[02:37]: measuring cup and i'm going to strain
[02:38]: them into here
[02:41]: strain these to get the seeds out we
[02:43]: want to keep all of the pulp that we can
[02:45]: but any of the seeds
[02:47]: should come out into the strainer and
[02:49]: there's no water in this just you know
[02:51]: fyi it's all just juice from the grapes
[02:56]: so right now it's just grape
[02:58]: pulp and juices that came out of the
[03:00]: skins
[03:02]: and we're just gonna simmer it until
[03:04]: it's starting to look which what does
[03:05]: she say um
[03:09]: [Music]
[03:10]: the flesh will lose its form and some of
[03:13]: the seeds will start to slip away
[03:15]: willy-nilly so
[03:16]: that's what we're hoping will happen
[03:19]: i think it might take us a little bit
[03:21]: more than
[03:23]: five minutes just because
[03:25]: my some of mine were really not super
[03:27]: ripe and the less ripe they are the sort
[03:30]: of um harder the flesh is so
[03:34]: do it for about five minutes and check
[03:36]: it
[03:36]: so this has been going for five minutes
[03:38]: i think we're gonna let it go a little
[03:41]: bit longer a few of them are
[03:44]: starting to cook but most of them are
[03:46]: still pretty hard so i think at this
[03:49]: stage i'm going to need a little more
[03:50]: time so i'll listen up all my takes in
[03:52]: just a minute i've cooked this an extra
[03:54]: 10 minutes there's still a few that are
[03:57]: kind of hard but the rest are
[04:01]: falling apart so
[04:03]: now i'm gonna strain it um all we're
[04:05]: trying to strain out all we're trying to
[04:07]: strain out here is the seeds
[04:10]: we want all of the pulp to go through
[04:12]: here now she uses a larger colander
[04:15]: with larger holes and she says to use
[04:17]: sort of medium holds you want as much to
[04:19]: go through as possible and it doesn't
[04:20]: matter how small it is
[04:22]: um
[04:23]: the this is probably the best thing i
[04:25]: have my other larger calendar has bigger
[04:28]: holes
[04:29]: so i don't think it would work for that
[04:32]: so we're going to try this so i'm just
[04:34]: going to
[04:35]: pour everything in here
[04:40]: and just make sure i get out at least
[04:42]: all of the seeds
[04:44]: don't need to get out everything else
[04:46]: because it's fine we're going to just
[04:48]: use this pan again
[04:50]: and now we're going to try to push
[04:52]: everything
[04:54]: through
[04:56]: the
[04:57]: um
[04:59]: through the strainer
[05:01]: she says you know at least medium holes
[05:03]: but you know you'd use what you got so
[05:06]: i'm gonna
[05:07]: be doing this for a little while and
[05:09]: when i'm done i'll show you what happens
[05:11]: next not all of my pulp is going through
[05:13]: and i'm just really annoyed with it
[05:15]: right now so
[05:19]: i'm going to turn my heat back on and
[05:21]: put everything that's in the top
[05:24]: back in my pan and cook it a little
[05:27]: while longer
[05:28]: and hopefully after that we can get all
[05:31]: of the pulp through here because we want
[05:32]: all of our pulp we just don't want the
[05:34]: seeds
[05:36]: so
[05:37]: i'm cooking for a little bit longer
[05:39]: until all of the pulp can go through
[05:41]: this i think if i had a strainer that
[05:44]: had
[05:45]: like a pasta strainer like a colander
[05:47]: that had smaller holes kind of like hers
[05:50]: this is probably the best um
[05:52]: [Music]
[05:54]: thing for this uh that would that would
[05:56]: let me
[05:58]: push all of this through there but
[06:00]: i think the combination of my
[06:02]: smaller
[06:04]: holes in my strainer and the
[06:09]: less ripe grapes is not not super great
[06:14]: for me right now so
[06:16]: we'll be cooking this a little bit
[06:17]: longer
[06:19]: so i'm going to call this good i picked
[06:20]: out some of the larger pieces uh and
[06:24]: missed put in a seed
[06:27]: sadly sadly i used a
[06:30]: wooden spoon to try to get a little bit
[06:32]: more
[06:33]: through
[06:35]: um
[06:36]: we're just going to have to
[06:38]: take the loss of however much
[06:41]: we're missing here
[06:43]: but make sure you scrape
[06:46]: the bottom side
[06:48]: to get all of that pulp out
[06:51]: we're going to discard the seeds
[06:53]: everything else goes in here
[06:56]: i already put most of it in it's really
[06:59]: you know the pulp goes down pretty
[07:02]: far so it's not a huge amount
[07:06]: so now
[07:08]: we're adding our skins back in and
[07:09]: you'll notice that i have
[07:11]: some of the
[07:14]: what they're called they're called
[07:15]: bronze they're greener
[07:17]: grapes and then some were the
[07:20]: black and they're more purple
[07:22]: muscadine grapes
[07:24]: [Music]
[07:26]: she suggests that a
[07:30]: two parts
[07:32]: green to one part
[07:35]: purple
[07:36]: bronze black whatever
[07:38]: is is a good ratio because of the
[07:40]: difference in the flavors but of course
[07:41]: whatever you have is fine
[07:43]: um so we've got the skins in here now
[07:45]: and we're adding water just a little
[07:47]: tiny bit of water and there's no pectin
[07:50]: in this um i think the skins have enough
[07:53]: in it that will
[07:54]: it'll make it set up like you know
[07:56]: preservatives or jelly not really jelly
[07:58]: but jam
[07:60]: um
[08:01]: so we're gonna bring this up to a boil
[08:03]: and cook it
[08:04]: for
[08:05]: five minutes
[08:06]: this has been boiling for five minutes
[08:08]: i'm not gonna worry about boiling it
[08:09]: longer or not because we're not done
[08:12]: here
[08:13]: next thing we add is the sugar
[08:15]: preserves always have sugar
[08:17]: i've already measured it
[08:19]: stir this in
[08:21]: and we're going to continue to boil this
[08:23]: for another
[08:24]: 10 minutes at this point
[08:27]: starting to take on the purple color
[08:30]: that she assures us we will get if we
[08:32]: use at least you know a third of the
[08:36]: darker
[08:37]: muscadine grapes
[08:39]: five more minutes time to
[08:41]: check this again i'm just gonna stir it
[08:43]: up a little bit it's getting much more
[08:45]: purple
[08:47]: it was a much a lighter purple before
[08:50]: now it seems like a darker purple which
[08:52]: is good so i'm gonna grab my plate
[09:04]: a little bit
[09:07]: okay so
[09:10]: it seems slightly
[09:15]: um
[09:20]: thicker let's see she says
[09:24]: gels up and wrinkles
[09:31]: i don't think we're quite there yet
[09:33]: all right
[09:36]: super tasty though
[09:39]: so i'm just gonna let it go for about
[09:41]: three more minutes before we test it
[09:44]: again um
[09:46]: i really think because some of my grapes
[09:50]: were not super
[09:52]: ripe maybe the holes are taking a little
[09:55]: bit more
[09:56]: time to
[09:58]: cook down
[09:60]: so
[10:02]: it's been another three minutes
[10:05]: certainly looks like it's getting
[10:07]: thicker the bubbles sort of get
[10:10]: smaller and foamier it's kind of like
[10:12]: when you make fudge
[10:14]: i guess that's what i
[10:15]: like in this too
[10:20]: very nice purple color let's test it
[10:24]: you can see that is
[10:25]: still a little
[10:28]: fluid
[10:30]: but a lot less fluid than it was
[10:34]: at the original timing
[10:36]: so
[10:39]: it kind of
[10:41]: hangs on my finger a little bit so
[10:45]: i'm gonna call this done
[10:46]: now
[10:50]: the final ingredient
[10:53]: we um
[10:56]: is uh some lemon juice so
[10:59]: we just have to add a little bit of
[11:01]: lemon juice freshly squeeze
[11:04]: okay that'll be fine
[11:06]: just add a little bit of tartness to the
[11:09]: pretty sweet
[11:13]: preserves that we have going here
[11:15]: and
[11:18]: we're done
[11:19]: so
[11:21]: since this only makes a pretty small
[11:23]: amount i really think it's going to fill
[11:24]: this jar so
[11:26]: i don't know how the original recipe
[11:28]: could have been um
[11:30]: only
[11:31]: one pint
[11:33]: but
[11:38]: um
[11:40]: now i have to transfer this into here
[11:41]: and i don't really want to get out my
[11:45]: jarring
[11:48]: canister
[11:50]: funnel
[11:52]: but so you can make more or you can put
[11:55]: this into smaller jars and then process
[11:57]: them
[11:58]: like with any jam there are directions
[12:00]: in the book um
[12:01]: [Music]
[12:02]: for canning things like this hot water
[12:05]: canning
[12:06]: and she said you would process this for
[12:08]: 10 minutes but we're not going to do
[12:11]: that we're just going to put it in here
[12:12]: and it's all going to go in the
[12:13]: refrigerator and that will be fine
[12:15]: so let's see how
[12:17]: well i can get this
[12:20]: into the jar
[12:21]: the problem being all those holes
[12:26]: are
[12:29]: you know make it not just a single
[12:33]: stream
[12:35]: of jam
[12:54]: so there we go
[12:56]: and i was correct
[12:58]: my one recipe of this
[13:01]: almost filled up my pint jar so
[13:04]: i think the full recipe would make
[13:06]: almost two pints
[13:08]: well
[13:09]: math right so um we'll let you know what
[13:12]: we think in uh
[13:14]: just a second thanks to the magic of
[13:16]: television
[13:26]: on this episode of cooking the books
[13:27]: with heather you watched me make great
[13:29]: whole preserves from vivian howard's
[13:32]: deep run roots cookbook
[13:36]: it was a really easy recipe
[13:40]: nothing
[13:43]: horribly difficult about it you didn't
[13:45]: even need to cut the grapes up
[13:49]: i did need to i did feel like i needed
[13:51]: to cook
[13:53]: my
[13:54]: hull not my holes my grape innards
[13:58]: um
[13:60]: a little bit more before
[14:02]: i
[14:04]: put the holes in because they were
[14:07]: really hard just it was really hard to
[14:08]: push it through the strainer and get the
[14:12]: seeds out so that might be something
[14:14]: that you really need to
[14:16]: um
[14:17]: judge my some of my grapes were really
[14:21]: really firm
[14:22]: a little unripe and i think that made
[14:25]: that a little bit more difficult
[14:27]: need a little bit more cooking
[14:29]: um
[14:31]: in the end uh
[14:33]: when i first tried this i felt like
[14:38]: the
[14:40]: i felt like the jam the preserves were a
[14:42]: little thick
[14:43]: but
[14:46]: i decided eventually that was because of
[14:48]: the large grape pulse it was hard to get
[14:50]: a spoon of it
[14:52]: and it felt like it was really thick but
[14:54]: it was because all of the grape holes
[14:55]: were sort of
[14:58]: tangled together and it was hard to get
[14:59]: those out and the the grape holes were
[15:01]: just really large and i think
[15:04]: that is the part that i didn't like
[15:07]: about this recipe
[15:08]: um
[15:10]: i would make this recipe again but i
[15:12]: would definitely sort of chop those up
[15:15]: at least roughly
[15:16]: before
[15:18]: i put them in to cook because it was
[15:20]: just
[15:23]: not as pleasant to eat with huge pieces
[15:26]: of the grape hole not not as as easy to
[15:29]: spread
[15:30]: which we like a nice spreadable um
[15:33]: preserve
[15:34]: so
[15:35]: those were really the only things i
[15:37]: would do differently the grape preserves
[15:40]: they tasted really good they turned out
[15:41]: a really beautiful purple color i did
[15:44]: use the um the ratio that she suggested
[15:47]: of sort of
[15:49]: two-thirds bronze to one-third
[15:53]: um black or purple ones and it did turn
[15:57]: out a beautiful color and um yeah i
[15:60]: think the whole family enjoyed the
[16:01]: recipe and it was one of the
[16:03]: easier
[16:05]: um
[16:05]: [Music]
[16:07]: jam recipes because you don't have to
[16:08]: use pectin and it doesn't make a huge
[16:11]: batch
[16:12]: it does make less than
[16:14]: does make more than the recipe says i
[16:16]: think the recipe said it would make a
[16:17]: pint
[16:19]: we made half a recipe and got about a
[16:21]: three quarters of a pint maybe
[16:24]: anyway it was a lot
[16:26]: it seemed to be a lot more than than the
[16:28]: recipe said it would make um
[16:30]: but yeah i would definitely make it
[16:31]: again if you've never made it um and you
[16:34]: like muscadine grapes
[16:37]: definitely do this do this and try it
[16:40]: out especially if you have
[16:42]: the luxury of having your own muscadine
[16:44]: grapes vines right now they're coming
[16:47]: off of the vine and
[16:50]: they're readily available and you know
[16:52]: you might want to preserve some
[16:54]: in a preserve
[16:56]: for uh for use later
[16:59]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[17:01]: give me a thumbs up hit the subscribe
[17:03]: button and come back and watch me make
[17:05]: something else next week
[17:07]: [Music]