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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Watermelon Jelly

While browsing around Pinterest I found a recipie for Watermelon Jelly.  I just had to try it.  Of course I have pinned about a million things I want to try, but this one just stayed on my mind.  So when my brother came to visit on Labor Day weekend and brought this HUGE (it weighed 40 lbs. I checked) watermelon I asked him if I could use some to make jelly.  I pulled up the website's recipie.  Here is the link, and got right to work.

First you need to gather your ingredients. 
6 C. pureeded Watermelon
5C. white sugar
1/2 C bottled or fresh lemon juice
1 pkg Pectin



Then I began to cut up the watermelon.  It was HUGE so there was plenty to go around.  I went ahead and doubled it. 

It is important to remove all the seeds and then I just put the pieces in the blender and let it go.  As it finished I measured it out into a large pot.


Then you add sugar and lemon juice.  It looks so pretty and has a kind of foam on top to start with.  Then you are to bring it to a boil.  Once my pot got close to boiling I nocticed a definate problem.  The pan was not going to be big enough.  Uh oh.  So I switched to my HUGE stock pot. 


It still boiled up pretty high in there.  Once the temperature gets to 220 degrees you can add the pectin.  Then it continues to boil for another five minutes.  I would let it go longer.  I had trouble with it thickening up so I had to put it on to boil again and so did the original poster. 

Remove from heat and pour into clean, steril jars and then you can use a water bath to seal.  I just made sure they cooled and put them in the fridge.  I know they won't last as long but that is never a problem here.  ;)   It's one of the perks of having three GROWING boys. 



When you are all finished you have these beautiful jars of jelly.  I had various sizes but there were roughly 9 8oz. jars when I finished.  Of course remember I doubled the recipie.  If you decide to give it a try I would love to know.  It is very good.  Tastes just like watermelon.  :)


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34 comments:

Heather{Our Life In a Click} said...

That looks so bright and yummy!!!

Tara @ Tales of a Trophy Wife said...

Water melon jelly? WHo knew?

Kim said...

Hmmm. This looks so interesting. I wonder why it's not something widely available. Must be great! Thanks for the idea.

Unknown said...

Mmmmm. This is a use I never thought of for watermelon! I bet it tastes wonderful!

Carson said...

Thank you for posting this! My Mom makes delicious raspberry jams and strawberry jams- I'm excited to be able to turn the tables and surprise her with watermelon jelly!

Tara @ Tales of a Trophy Wife said...

Congrats! I featured this in last week's party. I'd be honored if you'd come and grab a button.

Unknown said...

Now THIS looks scrumptious!

Creole Zyzzx said...

Why stop with just the fruit, you can make bread and butter pickles out of the rind.
I made rind preserves last summer that tasted just like an apple pie!
If it's a fruit, you can make jelly and or jam out of it. Pretty much the same recipe.
I'll make champagne jelly and add a piece of fruit to it.

Celticravenz said...

Do you have to refrigerate? Or can you store in a cool pantry area? Thanks Jan :)

Rita said...

thank you for posting I just made like 3 jars of it it did take a while to thicken up but it sure tastes yummy

Cherri said...

What is your definition of 'boil longer' and how long should it take to thicken? I boiled it for 10 minutes and then water bathed it for 10 minutes. That was last night. They are still not think this morning. Am I going to have to boil them again and add more sure-gel? I made 22 jars, I really don't want to have to redo them all. Thanks. BTW - I am not planning on putting them in the fridge, they are going to go in the pantry and be given as gifts.

Sandie said...

WOW!!! 22 jars! You are a great friend. I honestly don't remember how long. I think I just let it cook until I noticed a definate thickening. Sorry I don't have a better answer. I havent' gotten around to making it again this year. Much to my kids dismay. Life has been too crazy. Hope that helps.

Unknown said...

Working on it right this minute!!

Lauren said...

Okay, so I just made this and what I found is that I had to boil it a good 20-25 minutes to really get it to thicken correctly. The jars are cooling right now, but it looks great. I did get to taste a little and HOLY WOW! It's very sweet but has a nice watermelon flavor. My kids are going to love this on their PB&J's.

Anonymous said...

I made 17 jars and cooked it to 240 for about 30 minutes and added double the sure jell and it is the perfect thickness, my family loved it!

Laura said...

This was THE messiest canning experiment EVER! lol! I had it in a huge stock pot (only 1/3 full) and it still boiled over, BIG TIME. Top that off, it didn't set up. -.- Now I have watermelon syrup! ;-) It does look pretty, I'll give it that!

Anonymous said...

I just made this yesterday and it turned out awesome the only thing is get a watermelon with seeds easier to pick the seeds out then seedless they r very small and took me a long time to pick the seeds out !!!!! Oh and I boiled mine for 8 mins when I add the pectin
It turned out perfectly will be make this again next year thank u for sharing this recipe !!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Years ago my grandma told me that if you double a jelly recipe, you need to double the boiling time also. This advice has worked well for me! : )

Lori said...

This was messy and mine did not set up. It is very pretty though. I am thinking I will try again, I love watermelon!

Anonymous said...

If you read the sure jel package, it tells you not to double the recipe.

Anonymous said...

going to try this over the weekend and then do pickles with the rind...

Dot said...

With fall bringing threats of frost, if you have watermelons in the garden that are not ready to eat but the vines have died, they may still work for this jelly. I first tried watermelon jelly because my volunteer watermelons didn't get ripe enough to be worth eating. They were pale pink and not sweet but the watermelon flavor was there. They made great jelly, although the color was paler than pictured,the sugar brought out the melon flavor. So, don't toss those not quite ready melons in the fall.

Crystal said...

Has anyone tried this on toast /ice cream??? Just wondering about some serving ideas

Anonymous said...

I made this and had to double the pectin. It still did not Gel yet. but I am serving it as a syrup instead!

Anonymous said...

I tried this last year. Looked and smelled awesome just would not jell. it's thick like syrup and not jelly form at all........ can i just reboil and add more pectin?

Christine said...

I've had trouble getting recipes to jell up when I double the recipe. I've read that when using pectin, single batches are the way to go to deal with temperamental pectin! Can't wait to try!

Unknown said...

Wow! This is just as delicious as it is beautiful! I had a bunch of late watermelons in my garden. They are now Christmas presents!

Anonymous said...

Mine turned out delish! I cooked it a little longer and really over cooked the first batch..cooked a little less longer and it was a brighter red. They both are going to get eaten before they have time to settle.
I cooked mine until two big drops ran off the spoon instead of minutes.. Good luck everyone..it's to good not to try. And a bit messy but easy and soooo worth it!
Monica

Unknown said...

I wish you would put approximately the altitude for the boiling times!! :0

Unknown said...

I wish you would put approximately the altitude for the boiling times!! :0

Unknown said...

I have made this for years ... I live at about 6000 ft and I just spoon test mine for thickness. Just let it boil until it starts to set and put some on a spoon and make a circle on a saucer. When it is the thickness you want, put it into the jars. We eat it on toast, with PB, we also spread it on crackers with cream cheese.

dcottam said...

I made 3 batches of this today. I boiled it for 25 minutes and it came out the way I wanted it to. This is the first time I have ever made any. It's wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Can I use agar agar agar make wAter melon jelly

Anonymous said...

My husband & I tried this recipe. It took 20 minutes of boiling after adding the pectin to get the jelly to set. I told my husband this was the only time we would make watermelon jelly.