Mint Jelly

Homemade reduced sugar (or sugar-free) mint jelly from fresh mint. You can use any variety of mint you like. For a milder taste, try spearmint; for a stronger taste, use peppermint. You may also wish to try some of the specialty varieties such as pineapple mint, etc.

Good with lamb and cheeses. Mix some with lime juice for a mojito-style glaze on grilled seafoods.

This recipe is based on Pomona jelly guidelines, with direct assistance from Pomona.

Note: the green colouring is OPTIONAL. If you prefer a natural coloured mint jelly, this is what it will look like:

Contents

1 The recipe
- 1.1 Liquid sweetener directions (agave, honey, liquid stevia, etc.)
2 Reference information
3 Recipe notes
4 Recipe source
5 Nutrition

The recipe

Jar size choices: Either 125 ml (1/2 cup / 4 oz) OR quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)

Processing method: Water bath or steam canning

Yield: 2 x quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) jars

Headspace: 1 cm (1/4 inch)

Processing time: Either size jar 10 minutes. Adjust time for altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.

Mint Jelly

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Yield: 2 x quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) jars

Serving size: 1 tablespoon

Calories: 24

Fat: 0 g

Ingredients

30 to 40 g fresh mint, leaves and stems (1 cup packed tightly / 1 oz)
525 ml water (2 ¼ cups / 18 oz)
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 5% or bottled lemon juice (60 ml / 2 oz)
2 teaspoons calcium water
12 drops green food colouring (optional)
2 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin powder
200 g refined white sugar (1 cup / 8 oz) OR 4 to 8 tablespoons (¼ cup up to ½ cup / 2 to 4 oz) honey OR 1 teaspoon liquid stevia

Instructions

Wash mint, finely chop the leaves and stems (or crush), put in pot with the water.
Bring water and mint to a boil.
Remove from heat, let stand 10 minutes to steep.
Strain out and discard mint.
Measure out 500 ml (2 cups / 16 oz) of the mint-infused water. (It will be brown.)
Put infused water in a pot.
LIQUID SWEETENERS (HONEY, AGAVE, LIQUID STEVIA, ETC): See special directions below before proceeding further.
DRY SWEETENERS (SUGAR, SPLENDA, POWDERED STEVIA, ETC): Mix the pectin powder with the sugar in a small bowl or a measuring cup, set aside. Add to the pot the acid, the calcium water, and the food colouring (optional). Bring pot contents to a boil, then add pectin mixture.
ALL SWEETENERS: When pot returns to a boil, let boil for a minute.
If there's a lot of scum, you can skim it off by dragging the edge of a small piece of paper towel over it to pick some of it up, or try to remove with a spoon.
Ladle hot liquid into hot jars.
Leave 1 cm (1/4 inch) headspace.
Debubble, adjust headspace.
Wipe jar rims.
Put lids on.
Process in a water bath or steam canner.
Process jars for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

Liquid sweetener directions (agave, honey, liquid stevia, etc.)

Bring the 500 ml (2 cups / 16 oz) of the mint-infused water back to a boil, either in a pot or in a microwave. (Mind the surge when removing from microwave.)
Put half of the heated water into a blender, along with the pectin, and blend carefully (cover top of blender with a towel to prevent hot surge. (See recipe notes below if multiplying the batch.)
Put the blender mixture in a pot.
Put another cup of the plain mint water in the blender, whiz it to pick up more of the pectin with the same towel safety precaution, and pour that into pot. (The two steps help to get most of the pectin out of the blender.)
Bring pot to a boil. Add the acid, calcium water, food colouring (optional) and the liquid stevia or honey.
Bring back to a boil, follow canning directions above.

Pectin to Add Amount of boiling liquid
Up to 3 teaspoons – ½ cup liquid
4 to 4 ¾ teaspoons – ¾ cup liquid
5 to 6 teaspoons – 1 cup liquid
7 teaspoons – 1 ¼ cups liquid
8 teaspoons – 1 1/3 cups liquid

Reference information

Information about Pomona pectin.

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

Recipe notes

Because this is made with Pomona Pectin, you can double or triple the batch as desired with no ill-effect on the set of the jelly;
Pomona pectin comes with a small pouch of powdered calcium for you to mix with water to make calcium water;
The pectin powder will clump if you just mix it straight into the mixture; that’s why you mix it with something first;
If you are using sugar, you can reduce the amount of sugar you use and it will not affect the set;
What makes this recipe safe for canning is the added acidity. You can use a combination of vinegar (5% or higher) and bottled lemon juice. Bottled lemon juice is wanted for the assured acidity. Do not reduce the amount of acidity overall;
You can reduce the food colouring, or omit it entirely, but without it the jelly will be pale brown;
After opening, refrigerate and use within 3 weeks.
When you are picking mint, you want fresh-growth mint which has grown in cooler weather, which can happen in the spring, or fall. Mint picked at the height of summer heat, or older mature mint leaves, will not be that good.

Recipe source

Sumberg, Mary Lou. Herb Jelly. Pomona Pectin blog post 1 August 2013. Accessed October 2016.

Developed with the direct kind assistance of Connie Sumberg from Pomona Pectin.

You can make this with apple juice as the base instead of water. See blog entry for information. (We chose water to get the calories right down — enough acidity for safety was coming from the vinegar and lemon juice already.)