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How to Make Chokecherry Jelly

August 25, 2014 by Barb 22 Comments

I love picking berries! Yes I do.

On Saturday I spent a couple hours picking enough chokecherries to make about 21 jars of jelly, many of which I will give away.

It was sunny and warm with a tinge of coolness in the air. Everything is still very lush and green but the trees are showing early signs of what’s to come. They look stressed, bug-eaten, and with some yellow leaves peeking out here and there. This is my favourite time of year … it’s still summer, but a bit cooler, and there’s so many wonderful fruits and vegetables available.

How to make chokecherry jelly, preserves, keeping with the times

So after two hours of picking, one hour of washing and sorting, and four hours of cooking, here’s my reward.

How to make chokecherry jelly, preserves, keeping with the times

How to make chokecherry jelly, preserves, keeping with the times

I thought I would include the recipe I use. It’s straight from the Certo package and I never stray from the directions. Chokecherry jelly can be quite tricky. It can either not set at all, or become too hard. I seem to have luck if I do exactly as the recipe states.

Print
Chokecherry Jelly
 
Ingredients
  • 3 cups prepared juice
  • 6 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 pouches Certo Liquid Pectin
Instructions
Prepare the Juice
  1. To make the juice combine 12 cups chokecherries with 3 cups water in a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Pour into a colander lined with 3 layers of cheesecloth. Bring edges of cheesecloth together gently (careful it is HOT, so hot that I use rubber gloves and even then it is HOT) and let the juice drip. You can squeeze the bag gently but try not to ... you only need 3 cups of juice.
Jelly
  1. In a large saucepan stir together juice and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil hard 1 minute then at once remove from heat and add pectin. Stir and skim any froth for 5 minutes.
  2. Pour into sterilized jars and seal with sterilized lids.
3.2.2708

 

Enjoy!

Chokecherry Jelly, Preserves, Keeping with the Times

 

 

Filed Under: FOOD, Preserves Tagged With: chokecherries, jelly

Comments

  1. Barbara Hurst says

    August 25, 2014 at 6:44 am

    I think your reward also are these images, love those last two especially, awesomeness indeed. I have never had this type of berry or jam, must taste wonderful. Love the images Barb.

    Reply
  2. TexWisGirl says

    August 25, 2014 at 7:57 am

    it looks yummy!

    Reply
  3. Deanna@Snippets from Springdale says

    August 25, 2014 at 11:52 am

    Oh yum, I’ll bring the bagels, you put on the coffee!!

    Reply
  4. lisa says

    August 25, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    This sure looks yummy, Barb!
    Lots of work I’m sure, but so worth it.

    Reply
  5. Cathy H. says

    August 25, 2014 at 6:05 pm

    Delicious! I love your beautiful shots, especially all the bokeh in the last one!

    Reply
  6. Viv Halliwell says

    August 26, 2014 at 7:08 am

    Your jam looks simply gorgeous..

    Reply
  7. Michelle B says

    August 26, 2014 at 7:54 am

    Picking berries sounds like fun, the jam part a little tricky. :) Your images of the jam and berries are beautiful. I love the light wood background and the spilled jam.

    Reply
  8. Kia says

    August 26, 2014 at 7:59 am

    Delicious! I love all kind of jams, but I had never heard of chokecherries before. I’d love to try some. :)

    Reply
  9. kelly says

    August 26, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    well barb, i’ve never even heard of chokecherries before either. but it looks wonderful! oh and i saw your series on a project gallery…i totally need to come back check that out. i have a wordpress blog too and was thinking about sprucing up some of my archives,but this sounds way easier than the plan i had in mind. :)

    Reply
  10. Sherry Galey says

    August 29, 2014 at 8:33 pm

    Nothing like homemade jams and jellies. I used to eat homemade chokecherry jelly made by my mother and her friends as I was growing up in Montreal. Then a few years ago I started making grape jelly from our own grapes and grapevines. Now that we’ve moved my grapevine is not yielding enough yet to make jelly this year but it will in the future. So maybe I’ll just go to the farmer’s market and get some fruit….

    Reply
  11. Michael Jaqua says

    August 2, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    I made my first batch of chokecherry jelly from the bush I planted in my yard the year before.
    (Chokecherries grow very well in Northwest Oregon).

    The jelly was delicious! Very similar to blackberry jam, and excellent on toast or a croissant!

    I just harvested this year’s crop and am preparing to male another batch. Close friends and family love it as well, it makes a nice gift.

    Reply
  12. Michael Jaqua says

    August 2, 2018 at 2:47 pm

    I made my first batch of chokecherry jelly from the bush I planted in my yard the year before.
    (Chokecherries grow very well in Northwest Oregon).

    The jelly was delicious! Very similar to blackberry jam, and excellent on toast or a croissant!

    I just harvested this year’s crop and am preparing to make another batch. Close friends and family love it as well, it makes a nice gift.

    Thanks for posting this great recipe!

    Reply
    • Barb says

      August 2, 2018 at 6:23 pm

      Thanks for stopping by Michael! glad you liked it!

      Reply
    • Julie says

      August 6, 2020 at 6:55 pm

      Hi, My mother made chokecherry jelly annually from the time I was 10 years old until she died when she was 72. She labored over it intensively and prided hersef in the fact that it was very clear red, and very yummy. She washed the berries then strained them through a collander. after they were very clean she would cook them and spoon off any foam. Then she would put the whole cooked mass into a pillow case and drain them throughly. She never squeezed the pillow case because that would smash the berries and let the pulp through the pillow case which would make the jelly cloudy. The pillow case was hangedbut up near the ceiling with a bowl underneath it. It dripped like this for a minimum of 24 hours. The jelly was made by the recipe above but my mother monitored it for setting up.
      i just picked a whole lot of berries and will try to make some again (I tried only marginally successfully) several years ago. i am determined to make it work this year.
      Tips from mom were to make sure to add lemon juice in amounts about one quarter to one half half more than the recipe called for. Taste the jelly before you add the lemon and use the higher amount if the jelly seem cloyingly sweet.

      Reply
  13. Carol J says

    August 16, 2020 at 12:07 pm

    Thank you I have not made chokecherry jelly for at least 15 years. I always rely on the recipe being in the Certo box. It is not in there anymore. Go figure. I have found many other recipes but this one is my tried and true one. Thanks for posting it…it always turns out.
    Carol

    Reply
  14. Jeannette Soley says

    August 30, 2020 at 10:38 am

    A great tip cor this and any jam or jelly, and 1/2 tsp. Butter at beginning and you will have pretty much no foam

    Reply
  15. Althea J. Lewis says

    August 2, 2021 at 2:23 pm

    This is the recipe I use but find it jells too much, you can slice it instead of it being spoonable . How can I fix this?
    I was going to use only 1 pkg of cert but afraid it won’t set enough.

    Reply
    • Judy says

      August 9, 2021 at 4:38 pm

      Following, would also like this answered

      Reply
    • Barb says

      August 9, 2021 at 5:49 pm

      Hi Althea,

      As I wrote in my post in August of 2014:

      “I thought I would include the recipe I use. It’s straight from the Certo package and I never stray from the directions. Chokecherry jelly can be quite tricky. It can either not set at all, or become too hard. I seem to have luck if I do exactly as the recipe states.”

      I’ve had the same thing happen to me .. when it doesn’t set at all, I use it as syrup. When it’s too hard, I simply use it as it. The Certo Company doesn’t have any suggestions on how to redo jam that’s too hard.

      Reply
  16. Nicole says

    August 9, 2022 at 12:56 pm

    Just made this exactly as written, and the jelly is excellent! Would be nice if the recipe included “makes XYZ number of jars” so those of us making it know how many jars to prepare, but other than that, very easy to follow. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  17. Wanda says

    August 13, 2022 at 10:26 am

    Do I use the boiling water that I cooked the chokecherries in for the jelly or just the squeezed out juice?

    Reply
    • Barb says

      August 13, 2022 at 2:26 pm

      Hi Wanda, combine 12 cups chokecherries and 3 cups water, cook, let drip through cheesecloth (squeeze just a bit if you want) and that’s what you use for the jelly. You need a total of 3 cups.

      Reply

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Welcome! I'm Barb, and this is where I practice my mantra to "learn something new, try something different". It's my hope that something I do here may inspire you! Read More…

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