AIP white grape and ginger jelly - sugar-free preserve set with Pomona's pectin

A shelf of home-canned jars is one of the quieter comforts of AIP elimination, something sweet you made yourself and can trust completely. This jelly takes 2 days, mostly waiting, and asks you to set the sugar bowl aside entirely. Day 1 is crushing and straining. Day 2 is the boil, the jars, the seal.

The ginger juice threaded through this jelly is doing more than seasoning. Ginger has a long history as a warming root that supports easy digestion, so this jar carries a small, quiet kindness along with its sweetness. What actually sets the jelly is Pomona's pectin, which firms up with calcium instead of sugar, so the grape juice gels on its own natural sweetness with nothing extra stirred in. The color is its own small grace: the juice pressed from white grapes looks pale at first, then settles overnight in the refrigerator and rises soft and pink on its own, nothing added, nothing rushed.

A jar that seals with a clean pop after 2 patient days is its own small reward. Keep it simple at the table: a spoon over unsweetened coconut yogurt, a small daily sweetness that took real care to make.

Ingredients

• 4 to 4.5 lbs white grapes (yields about 4 cups juice)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tbsp ginger juice (store-bought, or blend fresh ginger with water and strain)
• 4 tsp Pomona's calcium water (prepared per the package)
• 4 tsp Pomona's pectin powder

Method

Day one. Crush the whole grapes with a potato masher, then strain and press to collect the juice. Discard the solids. Refrigerate the fresh juice overnight so the green pulp settles to the bottom and clearer juice rises above it. This settling is what gives the finished jelly its soft color.

Day two. Sterilize your jars and lids, and prepare the calcium water following the pectin package directions.

Measure out 4 cups of the settled juice, drawing from the top without stirring up the sediment. Stir in the lemon juice and the ginger juice.

Bring 1 cup of the juice mixture to a boil with the calcium water. Blend in the pectin powder until fully dissolved, then stir this back into the remaining juice. Bring everything to a full rolling boil.

Ladle into the prepared jars, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Add 1 minute for every 1,000 feet of altitude. (Verify this adjustment against current canning guidance before you rely on it.)

Sealed jars keep up to a year. Once opened, refrigerate and use within about three weeks.

*Adapted from asquirrelinthekitchen.com*