“Thanks for a beautiful rhubarb jelly recipe! I just wanted you to know that I made this for my local county fair & it won BOTH 1st Place and Best of Show! It is delicious!” ~Melissa
rhubarb jelly is a fun (and easy!) project
Jelly making is one of my most favorite things to do in the kitchen. I never get tired of the magical transformation of fresh juice into a sparkling jelly. Part of the fun is dreaming up new recipes since almost any fruit or vegetable can be jellied ~ and it’s especially satisfying when things turn out vibrant and bursting with flavor like this one. Rhubarb is ideal for jelly making because it has a super tart flavor to begin with and can handle all the extra sugar.
what you’ll need to make rhubarb jelly
- fresh rhubarb stalks, thick or thin, and any color
- pectin
- a high speed blender like Vitamix, or a food processor
- a muslin jelly or nut milk bag. If you like to make jellies it pays to get an inexpensive jelly strainer, pictured below to make the process easy and hands free.
- A large saucepan, stainless steel is best.
- If you want to can your jelly you’ll need a water bath canner or a deep cooking pot with a rack that fits in the bottom. Be sure the pot has a close-fitting lid. Alternatively you can skip the canning and freeze your jelly for longer storage.
where to find rhubarb
If you’ve got rhubarb growing in your yard this is an ideal project. Rhubarb has a relatively short season, but backyard rhubarb can keep producing right through the summer. It’s available in the produce section of many stores from about April through the end of summer. Consider freezing it for later use, just wash and dry the stalks, then slice. Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer and freeze until solid, then fill heavy duty freezer bags and force out any excess air before sealing.
I love to fill small Weck canning jars with rhubarb jelly
They’d make beautiful and unexpected gifts for the holidays down the road. And the jar is just as pretty as the jelly!
does the color of rhubarb affect its flavor?
Rhubarb comes in many shades, from palest green to deep crimson, but the flavor will be consistent, so no worries. Your jelly will vary in color depending on your rhubarb, but it will definitely be pretty in any event 🙂 The vanilla beans add a subtle depth to the flavor.
This could make the best pb& j sandwich of your life! Actually I made mine an almond butter and rhubarb jelly sandwich, even better 🙂
Jelly making basics
- Jelly is made by cooking fruit juice with sugar, and adding pectin.
- Pectin is added to create the gelled consistency.
- Sugar also helps the gelling process.
- If you’re planning to can your jelly it’s important to follow a trusted recipe exactly, any changes can affect the safety of the finished product.
- If you’d like to play with a recipe, consider making a small batch and keeping it in the refrigerator or freezing it for longer storage.
How to can jellies
- To can your homemade jelly, ladle or pour the boiling liquid directly into your hot sterilized canning jars, and be sure to leave 1/4 free space at the top. Wipe down the rims of the jars, and close up your jars securely but not super tightly.
- Place on a rack in a canner filled with boiling water. The water should cover the jars by at least one inch. Cover the canner.
- Bring the water back to a boil; boil gently for the number of minutes specified in your recipe. Add 1 minute of processing and sterilizing time for each 1000 feet of additional altitude.
- Remove the jars to a protected surface and cool, away from drafts, undisturbed for 12 hours.
About sugar and canning
- This recipe contains a lot of sugar, although it’s not sweeter than other jellies I’ve had. I used a classic, tried and true recipe because when it comes to canning, it’s not advisable to play around with proportions if you want to have a safe product.
- However there has been new research that proves that sugar does not play a role in canning safety, as has been previously believed.
- Sugar does play a roll in helping a jam or jelly ‘gel’, so if you want to reduce the sugar you’ll need to use a “no or low sugar’ pectin, like this one. I’ve used this for many of my lower sugar recipes and it works great. Note that you should not try to develop your own canning recipe for safety reasons. If you want to play, plan to refrigerate or freeze your recipes.
Rhubarb Jelly
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lbs rhubarb, washed, trimmed, and sliced
- 1/2 cup water
- 7 cups granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- seeds of 1 vanilla bean
- 6 ounces liquid pectin
Instructions
- Puree the rhubarb in your Vitamix blender or food processor, along with the water to get it started. You may need to do this in 2 batches.
- Put the rhubarb puree into a clean jelly or nut bag, and let it hang over a large bowl to allow the juice to drip out. Don’t press or squeeze the bag aggressively or the pulp may come through and this will make your jelly cloudy. I do squeeze it a little bit, though, to move it along. It can help to have a jelly strainer, which is made for this purpose. You want to end up with 3 1/2 cups liquid.
- Put the rhubarb juice in a large stainless steel pot or saucepan. Stir in the sugar, the lemon juice, and the vanilla bean seeds. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring almost constantly.
- Once the mixture has reached a full rolling boil, let it fully boil for 3 minutes. It may foam up so stay right by it. Stirring is ok.
- After 3 minutes, stir in the pectin, and bring it back to a full, rolling boil. Boil 1 minute. Again it may foam up so be careful.
- Take the jelly off the heat and skim off any foam that is on the surface. Fill your sterilized jars to within 1/4 inch of the top.
If you are canning
- Wipe down the rims of the jars to remove any spilled jelly, then attach the lids and screw them, but don’t over-tighten.
- Process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
If you aren’t canning
- Let cool and then cap and refrigerate.
Video
Notes
If you want to use powdered pectin ~
- Use 4 tablespoons of powdered pectin in place of the 2 pouches of liquid. Instead of adding the pectin at the end, you can whisk the powdered pectin into the sugar before you combine it with the juice.
Nutrition
I live this jelly, I found a quicker way to get the good juice to make the jelly so it is now my favorite recipe n favorite jelly
What if I do not have access to vanilla bean? Can I use extract? If yes how much? This looks so pretty
You can use 1-2 tsp of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste, if you can find that.
Thank you so much!
Ooh I’m going to make this for Xmas gifts!
Has anyone tried processing the rhubarb through a juicer to get the amount of juice needed?
Love our rhubarb. Will be making this recipe. Thanks.
Where’s the juice? The bag has been hanging for an hour, and I might have 1 cup! What am I doing wrong?
Go ahead and gently squeeze the bag to get all the liquid out.
Love this recipe so much!! Added vanilla bean paste after boiling to keep flecks in the jelly and a smidge of Cardamom. Need to get my hands on more rhubarb as this will be my go to Christmas gift this winter. Won blue ribbon at our county fair with this one!
I’m not a fan of super sweet things, but also don’t like too tart. Rhubarb has a tart flavor so more sugar is needed to balance it. I’m looking for an honest opinion if this recipe is on the sweeter side? Balanced perfectly? So I can adjust the sugar accordingly to my liking. Thanks!
I made this in a double batch. My rhubarb wasn’t as red so the color is not pink. However, the taste is incredible. I canned my jelly and the consistency turned out almost perfect. There very top of the jelly is slightly runny but I’m hoping the longer it sits, it will set. I eat mine with crackers and cheese— a perfect pair. I highly recommend trying this!
How much jelly does this make? How many pint jars?
This looks so delicately delicious, but oh help, that’s a lot of refined sugar! Is there anything healthy to replace all that sugar with?
Sugar helps jellies set, but if you use a pectin specifically formulated for low sugar, then you can reduce it as low as you like.
This recipe intrigued me as I am always searching for ways to use my rhubarb. I did not grind the rhubarb in the food processor (because it was an extra step), but instead cooked the rhubarb with water till mushy, and then strained it. I did not press the cheese cloth during straining, but used an old fashioned jam/jelly strainer lined with the cloth. The juice was pretty clear and I then could not risk making the jelly without lemon juice because it was my first time for rhubarb. My vanilla beans came via Amazon and were not dry, so even tho I tried to shave them I ended up putting the stressed bean into the hot liquid.
The set was great and almost instant. I am used to making jelly with liquid pectin and used 1 1/2 packets of Bernardini for 3 cups of juice and 3 tbsp lemon juice. BTW, skimming removed most of the floating vanilla bean flecks.
Flavour was amazing! and jelly is like a pink diamond on the spoon. 🙂
“like a pink diamond on the spoon” ~ love it!!
I agree with your method. Just wondering if the pectin is really needed. I don’t like the taste. I make my apple jelly with just sugar. No pectin. Wondering if this would set up as well.
Rhubarb doesn’t have as much natural pectin as apples, so I don’t think it would set up.