How to Strain Seeds from Fruit when Making Jelly

Jelly differs from jam or preserves in that it is seedless and does not contain recognizable pieces of fruit. It’s easy to remove the seeds from fruits like peaches because they have large, single seeds. But fruits like strawberries and grapes that have many small seeds make it hard to get clear, seedless jelly. The instructions below will help you get clear juice that you can turn into delicious sparkling jelly you’ll be proud to display or give as a gift.

Steps

1
Find a good recipe for fruit jelly and follow its directions for cooking and softening the fruit.
2
Wet a large jelly bag or several jelly bags (depending on how much you’re making) by soaking them for a few minutes in warm water.
- If you do not have a jelly bag, wet several squares of cheesecloth big enough to line a colander or strainer.
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3
Suspend the damp jelly bag over a container large enough to collect all the strained juice. You could also suspend the lined colander or strainer over a container.
4
Pour the warm, softened fruit into the jelly bag or lined colander until it’s about 3/4 full.
5
Allow the juice from the fruit to drip into your container. This can take 1 hour or several hours.
6
Discard the fruit puree in the jelly bag or colander after the juice stops dripping.
- If you are making grape jelly, place the juice in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Grape juice makes crystals that need to settle out of the juice.
- In the morning, strain the grape juice again through a clean, damp jelly bag or clean damp cheesecloth-lined colander. This will only take a few minutes.
7
Add the sugar and/or pectin called for in your recipe and continue cooking and processing your jelly as directed.

Warnings

If you are not going to make the jelly immediately after the straining, refrigerate the strained juice but make sure to use it within 3 days.

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Do not squeeze or push the fruit puree through the jelly bag or cheesecloth. This will often cause cloudy-looking or off-color jelly.

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Most fruit juice will stain clothing and may stain counters or floors if it’s spilled.

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Do the straining in a room that is as insect-free as possible and keep children and pets away.

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Be careful not to spill hot fruit on yourself as you pour it into the jelly bag or colander.

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