Rosemary Grape Jelly

Here's a twist on the PB&J classic—Concord grape jelly flavored with a sprig of rosemary. (Yes, that's thyme in the picture above, for a different idea I have about GRAPE JAM WITH THYME.)

I'm not, generally speaking, a big jelly fan. Here's why: To make jelly, you reduce fruit juice with sugar to the jell point. The objective is a clear suspension, which means that you extract all the flavors from your base ingredients—in the case of jelly, the juice pressed from whole fruit—and then you chuck out the solids. But I like fruit solids—the skin and pulp and fiber—and think it's a pity to discard that quantity of fruitiness. I have the same reaction whenever I make stock. A sparklingly clear chicken stock of course has myriad uses in the kitchen, but whenever making it, I always pick through the mushy bits of vegetables and meat at the bottom of the stock pot to get whatever good is left there. Spread on a crunchy piece of baguette, these stock by-products make a favorite stove-side nibble—the cook's treat.

But jelly has its place, especially when faced with a big pile of tiny, seedy fruits that would be unreasonably laborious to pit or peel. That's why grape jelly makes good sense, especially if you're working with seedy, thick-skinned grapes like the Concord or any of the other native North American grapes such as muscadines or that jewel of the Southern woods, scuppernongs.

This jelly recipe has a specific inspiration. Years ago, back in my Berkeley days, I worked one night at Acme Bread Company. My task was making rosemary focaccia, and I have the most pleasant memory of kneading chopped rosemary into the smooth dough. When I told David Tanis about it at the time, he suggested that I should try sprinkling a handful of grapes and a pinch of granulated sugar over the dough just before putting it in the oven. The result would be like schiacciata, a traditional bread baked in Italy's wine country during harvest. I thought of it as "breakfast focaccia" and made it several times during the summer that Laurent and I house-sat a big mansion with an outdoor kitchen near Santa Fe.

This autumnal jelly pairs the "foxy" taste of Concord grapes against the persuasive camphor scent of rosemary, and although the grapes have a candy sweetness, the jelly equally holds promise as a savory condiment, perhaps served alongside crunchy quails grilled over a woodfire.

ROSEMARY GRAPE JELLY
based on Linda Ziedrich's recipe for Concord Grape Jelly

3 pounds Concord grapes
1 just-ripe apple, thinly sliced (unpeeled and uncored—the extra dose of pectin in the apple will insure your jelly sets well)
3 cups sugar
2" sprig of fresh rosemary

1 Put grapes in a pot and crush with your feet. (joke! I started by pressing them with a potato masher but wound up squashing them with my hands.) Add the apple slices and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. (Don't crush them any more or it will make your jelly cloudy.)

2 Strain the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate overnight.

3 Pour the juice through a damp jelly bag (or a double layer of cheesecloth). You should have about 4 cups according to Ziedrich. Add the sugar. (I had less juice, so I reduced the sugar accordingly.) Bring to a boil, skim and reduce the juice over moderate heat until it sheets off the back of a cold spoon. (This is the most reliable test for the jell-set: Dip a cold spoon into your liquid and watch how it reacts. When you've reached the jell point, the liquid will cling thickly to the spoon, with the last drop or two oozing off heavily in a "sheet.")

4 turn off heat and swish the rosemary sprig around the liquid a few times. Leave it to steep for maybe 5 minutes while you prepare your jars. Remove the rosemary and return the liquid to a boil briefly. Ladle your jelly into jars, seal and process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes for half-pint jars.

Comments

[Diana]

Oh, please, please, please! Strawberries are 49¢ a pound at Fresh and Easy. What shall we add to them to make a jam more interesting than Smuckers or Welch's can make?

[danni]

Strawberry jalapeno jam is amazing. Sounds weird, but is awesome.