Wine and Herb Jelly
- 1 3/4 cups gewurztraminer or other full-bodied wine
- 8 stalks fresh thyme or other strongly flavored herb or spice
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons traditional powdered pectin (Certo, Ball or Sure-Jell are widely available)
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon butter
- Heat wine and thyme until simmering.
- Turn off heat, cover and steep for 30 minutes.
- Put a rack or a folded kitchen towel in a large pot, fill with water and bring to a boil.
- Add 5 quarter-pint canning jars and boil for 10 minutes.
- Jars may be left in the warm water until ready to be filled.
- (Alternatively, sterilize jars by running them through a dishwasher, leaving them inside until ready to fill.)
- Place canning rings in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil.
- Turn off heat and add lids to soften rubber gaskets.
- Rings and lids may be left in water until jars are filled.
- Remove thyme from wine.
- It will smell spicy and herbal.
- In a large heavy, nonreactive pot, stir together wine, lemon juice and pectin.
- Bring heat to medium high and stir often as mixture comes to a boil.
- When the mixture reaches a boil that cannot be stirred down, add sugar while stirring constantly.
- Heat jelly again to strong, hard boil to reduce the foam.
- Boil hard for exactly one minute to set the pectin.
- Turn off heat.
- Add butter and stir well to continue reducing the foam.
- Remove any remaining foam with a clean spoon.
- Ladle hot jelly into warm jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
- Wipe jar rims clean with a damp towel.
- Place lids on jars, screw on rings and lower jars back into pot of boiling water.
- Return to full boil and boil jars for 5 minutes.
- Transfer jars to a folded towel and cool for 12 hours; you should hear them ping as they seal.
- Sealed jars are shelf stable for one year.
- Once cool, test seals by removing rings and lifting jars by their flat lids.
- If the lid releases, the seal has not formed.
- Unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used within a month, or reprocessed.
- (Rings and jars may be reused, but a new flat lid must be used each time jars are processed.)
- To reprocess, reheat to boiling then continue as before.
wine, thyme, lemon juice, sugar, butter
Taken from cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014686 (may not work)