SewingSew

I made Concord Grape Jam this week and it was delicious, but I would like to use less sugar or no sugar. I got the recipe from Ball Blue Book. It calls for 2 quarts of grapes and 6 cups of sugar. I prefer to use the natural pectin of the fruit to set the gel. I really would rather not use commercially prepared pectin, mostly because I don't want anything to interfere with the natural flavor of the grapes, and SureJell pectin has a tartness to it. Apparently, altering the sugar in a recipe will effect how the fruit's pectin sets up and how long it takes to gel. Using less sugar can make for runny jam or jelly. It also can affect the shelf life of the jam. Does anyone have a recipe for Concord Grape Jam that has a better ratio of sugar to grapes than my recipe? Also... does anyone have a good tip for removing the seeds from the grape pulp? I tried a food mill, but that did not work out. I tried a sieve and and a fine mesh strainer. I cooked the pulp until it was soft, and that helped to release many of the seeds, but the problem of separating the seeds still remained. I know that I can physically pop the seed out of each grape individually, but there has to be a better way. After experimenting and cussing at the grapes, what finally worked the best, oddly enough, was using my potato ricer. Does anyone have a way that works better than this?