Highbush Cranberry Jelly

High bush cranberries are not true cranberries, they are a shrubby plant with clusters of red berries that are quite acidic. this jelly is superb on toast, english muffins, with cream cheese or is also good with meat,poultry or fish. please note that these berries smell like horrid stinky socks when the juice is being extracted from them, i like a well ventilated kitchen for this step. i also freeze the extracted juice before i make the jelly. it's convenient and it also seems to mellow the flavour.

Steps

Simmer the berries in the water for 10 minutes.

Boil rapidly for 3-5 minutes.

Strain the liquid through a jelly bag or cheese cloth lined sieve overnight.

Do not squeeze the mixture or your jelly will be cloudy.

For each cup of juice , add 2 / 3 c white sugar.

Stir it up well.

I used 5 cups of juice and 4 1 / 2 c sugar for my batch.

Bring to 220-222 degrees on candy thermometer.

Remove from heat , skim off any foam.

Pour into sterile jars and put in 5 minute water bath.

Or: bring juice and sugar to a boil , boil hard for 1 minute.

Turn off heat , add pectin , stir well.

Skim , fill jars and place in water bath 5 minutes.

Enjoy your jelly !.

Ingredients

cranberries, water, sugar, liquid pectin