Mint Jelly (using fresh mint from your garden)

Mint Jelly

Read this recipe all the way through before beginning. I made some adjustments and changes to it as I did mine. You can follow what I did or follow the recipe, whichever way works best for you. Following this recipe is a personal choice, I can't be help responsible for any negative results you get from using it or storing it.

3 cups packed Mint Leaves
Green Food Coloring
4 cups Sugar
1 pkg, powdered pectin




This recipe calls for using Mint leaves, so if you have Mint  in your garden this is a good recipe for it.

Pick and wash fresh mint leaves carefully and bring to a boil with 3 3/4 cup of water.
       (I went a step further with mine and tore my leaves in half)

Steep (leave the leaves sitting in the water off of heat source) for at least 10 minutes. (I let mine sit for about 20 minutes to assure I had a good amount of mint flavoring)

Strain through a double layer of cheesecloth and measure out 3 cups of the mint infusion. (I didn't have cheese cloth but did have one of the wire strainers that has very small holes, it worked great)
 a few drops of green food coloring to get the desired color you want.

Combine the mint infusion and sugar in a large kettle and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved, then continue the boil for 1 minute.

Add pectin all at once, continue to stir constantly and boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and skim off foam. (I avoid this step by adding a 1/2 tsp butter, it keeps jelly from foaming and doesn't affect the taste at all)

Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal with parrafin. (I also did not seal mine in this manner I put , mine in the sterilized jars, put seals and lids on them and then ran them for 10 minutes in boiling water in my cold pack canner, worked great)

Additional Notes: Once the jelly was done and one jar cooled I put it in the refrigerator. Once cooled I tried it one a slice of toast and it was okay. Not quite as strong in the mint flavor as I expected but you could definitely taste the mint. I have read often where mint jelly is good for use when cooking lamb. We don't eat lamb but I'm thinking it would be great on pork.