Red Huckleberry Jelly

Red Huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium) are found in Southeast Alaska.  These berries ripen in the late summer, to early fall.  They are a tart little berry.  While there aren't a lot of recipes written for red huckleberries, I have found that you can use in recipes that call for blueberries.  While they are not as sweet as blueberries, they are also not as wormy.

Huckleberry Jelly

Important Tips for Jelly Making

Cook your berries down and pour them and their juice into a jelly bag or cheesecloth.  Let it hang until the juice has drained out of the berries.  

Always measure sugar into a bowl and then use the measuring cup to measure it again into the jelly pot.  It is easy to miscount the cups of sugar, so...measure twice.

 Cut the tops off of the Certo packs and put them in something so they don't fall over and spill.  You want the tops off so they are ready to pour when the jelly mixture comes to a full rolling boil.

 Boil your lids for 20 minutes so they are sure to be sterilized.

 You can sterilize your jars by baking them in a 350F oven for 20 minutes.

Turn your jars over after you put the lids on.  Set the timer for 5 minutes and then turn them right side up when the timer rings.  Listen to the lids pop.

Huckleberry Jelly

4-1/2 cups huckleberry or blueberry juices

7 cups sugar

2 pouches Certo pectin

2 Tbs fresh lemon juice (I use 1/2 Tbs concentrate if I don't have fresh)

1/2 tsp butter, optional

I follow the blueberry jam recipe in the Certo Pectin box when I make blueberry or huckleberry jelly.  The recipe calls for crushed berries, but I use berry juice.  Huckleberries and blueberries don't have a lot of pectin so you do need two pouches of pectin.  If you add unripe berries to your mix, you get more pectin in your juice but you still need the two pouches.

Place the exact amount of juice and sugar into a 6-8 quart pot.  Bring the mixture to a full rolling boil on a higher heat, stirring constantly.  Add the butter when the mixture warms up.  When the mixture boils so hard you can't stir it down, add the pectin.  Return the mixture to a rolling boil and boil for exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove the mixture from heat and skim off the foam with a metal spoon.

Quickly ladle the jelly into prepared jars, leaving 1/8" at the top of each jar.  Wipe any excess jelly off of the rims.  Cover the jar with the two piece lids.  Screw bands tight.  Turn the jars upside-down for 5 minutes.  Then turn the jars right side up and let cool.

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