If you’ve ever enjoyed fresh mint jelly as an accompaniment to grilled or roasted meat, you’ll savor this step up!
Mint jelly is traditionally served with lamb, but we’ve found this tastes wonderful with beef, pork, and venison as well. Mint grows quickly and is one of the few plants that is nearly effortless to grow at home.
However, if you find yourself wanting to make some jelly and don’t have any on hand, you can frequently find small containers of it for sale for around $3 at the store- AVOID Those, instead, walk to the Lawn and garden department and purchase a mint plant for around $1.50 (year-round) Usually those plants have more leaves than the packaged variety, at half the price.
Cracked Pepper Mint Jelly Recipe
You’ll Need:
1 1/2 cups packed fresh mint leaves and stems, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup and 2 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 drop green food color
1-3/4 cups white sugar
1/4 (6 fluid ounce) container liquid pectin
2 tsp Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
1 Tbs Horseradish, drained thoroughly.
Rinse off the mint leaves, Chop them, then place them into a large saucepan. Add water, and bring the mint to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 10 minutes. (We poured ours into a mason jar).
Strain, and remove the mint leaves. Transfer the mint tea back into saucepan.
Stir in the lemon juice and food coloring. Mix in the sugar, and place the pan over high heat.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the mixture is boiling, stir in the pectin. Boil the mixture for a full minute while stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, and skim foam off the top using a large metal spoon. While that is cooling measure a tablespoon and a half of horseradish into a paper towel, wrap and gently squeeze to remove all the excess juice. Add this to the mint jelly, along with the freshly cracked Black pepper. Do not use Ground Pepper, there is a BIG difference in taste and texture.
Mix well. Let the jelly set at least 30 minutes prior to serving.
Cracked Pepper Mint Jelly
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups packed fresh mint leaves and stems chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
- ½ drop green food color
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar
- ¼ of a 6-fluid-ounce container liquid pectin
- 2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon horseradish drained thoroughly
Equipment
Instructions
- Rinse the mint well and chop the leaves and tender stems.
- Place the chopped mint in a large saucepan and add the boiling water.
- Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let stand 10 minutes.
- Strain out the mint and return the liquid to the saucepan.
- Stir in the lemon juice, green food color, and sugar.
- Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring constantly.
- Stir in the liquid pectin and boil hard for 1 full minute, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat and skim off any foam with a large metal spoon.
- Squeeze the horseradish in a paper towel to remove excess liquid, then stir it into the jelly with the freshly cracked black pepper.
- Let stand at least 30 minutes before serving.
Recipe Size Alteration
💡 If you altered the ingredients above by doubling or tripling the recipe, you may also need to change the pan/dish size and adjust the cook time.
Notes
Serving size is estimated at 2 tablespoons for 8 servings.
Prep and cook times are estimated from the written method.
For refrigerator storage, keep in a clean covered jar up to 1 month.
For pantry storage, process using a tested boiling-water canning method and use sealed jars within 1 year for best quality.
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Looks very interesting, how much does this recipe yield?
Any reason why you have to use liquid pectin versus powdered pectin? You are boiling it so it will cook the pectin.