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Pomegranate jelly colors the season

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Dark in the jar, pomegranate jelly is bright red on the plate (or cookie).
(Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Pomegranate jelly looks as cheery as the holiday season — a brilliant ruby red. It’s just the right color for Valentine’s Day sweets as well as Christmas cookies.

Using fresh juice, pomegranate jelly can be a tangy and pretty filler for thumbprint cookies or petite pastries. Delicious on toast or English muffins, it makes a flavorful glaze on pork or chicken, too.

It takes eight to 10 medium-to-large pomegranates to produce 4 cups juice. This recipe can be scaled down, but not up.

The little dab of butter cuts down on the foam (and hence the waste). This recipe is adapted from Elise Bauer’s excellent Simply Recipes version.

Pomegranate jelly
Makes 6 to 8 half-pints

Adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients :

4 cups pomegranate juice
¼ cup lemon juice
½ teaspoon butter
6 tablespoons powdered pectin (1 package Sure-Jell)
5 cups sugar
Instructions:
Strain pomegranate and lemon juices to remove any seed or white membranes.
In a large heavy pot, combine pomegranate and lemon juices with powdered pectin and butter. Bring to a full rolling boil.
Add sugar all at once. Return to boil. Boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat and let sit for 1 minute.

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A food mill can be used to juice the arils.
(Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Skim off any foam. Ladle hot mixture into hot sterilized jars, leaving about 1/4-inch head space. Wipe rims, screw on lids and process filled jars in hot water bath for 5 minutes.

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