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Elderberry jelly is a delicious way to preserve elderberries right in a canning jar. Elderberries are too low in acid to can on their own, but Ball tested a new elderberry jelly recipe in 2025, and that’s the recipe here. You weigh the juice, lemon juice and sugar on a kitchen scale, and the sealed jars keep on the pantry shelf.
Elderberries have a very short season, and they barely have time to ripen before they’re gobbled up and carried away by the birds. If you have a keen eye and watch closely, elderberry bushes produce huge harvests of medicinal berries each year. Those berries make a quick and easy elderberry jelly that preserves their goodness all year long.
We often preserve them as elderberry oxymel, which is a honey-based pro-biotic cough syrup for winter colds. It’s very much like elderberry syrup, but oxymel is made with honey, and apple cider vinegar to provide balance. Elderberry mead is another one of our favorites. Neither one is a good fit for young children, so this year I made a special batch of elderberry jelly for my jam-loving babies.
Though I made it for the little ones, elderberry jelly is now one of my very favorites. It tastes like a cross between blueberry jelly and blackcurrant jelly, with the sweet berry notes of blueberry, and then something a bit deeper and earthier like black currant.
The hardest part about making elderberry jelly is stemming and juicing the elderberries. If you pop the bundles of elderberries in the freezer for a few hours, the frozen berries fall from the stems with a quick comb of the fingers.
Since the berries are frozen, they won’t mash as easily and you’ll be less likely to stain your hands purple. This is optional though, and you can simply comb the berries from their stems while fresh…it’s just messier that way.
Once the berries are stemmed, they need a quick simmer to extract the juice. The berries fall apart quickly, so they just need a few minutes simmering with a bit of water to get the job done. Stirring and mashing with the back of a spoon helps too.
Either way, now you have juice mixed with pulp and seeds. At this point, the quickest way to extract the finished juice is with a jelly strainer stand and jelly bag.
Pour the mixture in, suspended over a bowl, and allow the elderberry juice to strain overnight. A jelly bag is efficient and will result in a very clean jelly, but it requires patience.
For the impatient, try using a fine-mesh strainer and a spatula. Press the berries into the strainer screen and stir them around until all the juice and pulp goes through but the seeds remain.
When you use a fine mesh strainer instead of a jelly bag, the result is more of an elderberry jam than a jelly. Much of the elderberry pulp ends up in the juice, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
At this point, all you need to do is weigh the juice, cook it with bottled lemon juice, pectin and sugar, and can it up!
Elderberry jelly, like most jams and jellies, needs a headspace of 1/4 inch. That means you’ll be filling the jars very near the top before capping with two-part canning lids and processing in a water bath canner for 10 minutes (or 15 minutes if above 6,000 feet in elevation).
This recipe is Ball’s Elderberry Jelly, which Ball validated in 2025 under the newer elderberry safety guidance. Penn State Extension shares it as its safe elderberry jelly recipe for canning.
Elderberries are a low acid fruit, and their pH varies a lot between varieties and growing conditions. Many are above pH 4.6, which is too high for safe water bath canning. Ball took every elderberry recipe out of the 38th edition of the Ball Blue Book, then developed this one. It depends on exact amounts of bottled lemon juice and sugar to be shelf stable.
That’s why you weigh the elderberry juice, lemon juice and sugar on a kitchen scale. Measuring cups aren’t accurate enough here. Don’t cut the sugar or the lemon juice, and use bottled lemon juice, since its acidity is consistent. No honey, maple syrup, sugar substitutes or low sugar pectin either.
(If you’re not canning, and instead making a refrigerator jelly, you can use a low sugar pectin of your choice, and follow the instructions on the box for blueberry jelly.)
The ingredients for a batch of elderberry jelly (making about 5 half pint jars) are as follows:
- 650 grams elderberry juice, about 3 cups (from about 3 pounds of stemmed elderberries)
- 62 grams pectin, about 6 tablespoons (I’m using Ball Classic Pectin)
- 130 grams bottled lemon juice, about 1/2 cup
- 1,100 grams sugar, about 5 1/2 cups (I know, it’s a lot, but it’s required for canning safety here, and elderberries aren’t sweet naturally)
The cup amounts are just for planning. Weigh everything for the batch itself.
The process is the same as any jelly made with pectin.
First, make the juice. Put the stemmed elderberries in a pot with just enough water to keep them from scorching. That’s about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water for every 4 cups of berries. Bring them to a boil, then simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, crushing the berries as they soften. Strain them through a damp jelly bag for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Weigh the collected juice. You need 650 grams, so save any extra for something else. If you come up short, cook and strain a few more berries rather than topping it off with water.
At this point, if canning, prepare a water bath canner, jars and lids.
Place the juice in a jam pot with the bottled lemon juice and pectin (but don’t add the sugar yet). Stir to dissolve the pectin.
Turn on the heat and bring it up to a boil, stirring.
Add the sugar, stirring until it dissolves, and return the pot to a full rolling boil that can’t be stirred down. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat, skim off any foam, and ladle into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
Canning Elderberry Jelly
Reminder, you cannot reduce the sugar or the lemon juice in this recipe. Both are required for safe preservation on the pantry shelf.
Ladle the jelly into canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace and process the jars in a water bath canner for 10 minutes (15 minutes if above 6,000 feet in elevation). Turn off the heat, take off the canner lid, and leave the jars in the water for another 5 minutes (to help prevent siphoning).
Use a jar lifter to remove the jars from the canner to cool on a towel on the counter.
Check seals after 12 to 24 hours and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator to use in the next week or two.
Properly canned and sealed jars of elderberry jelly will maintain peak quality on the pantry shelf for 12 to 18 months, and be safe to eat as long as the jars are sealed. Refrigerate after opening.
Preserving Elderberries
Preserving a bumper crop of elderberries this year?
- Elderberry Syrup
- Elderberry Wine and Mead
- Elderberry Tincture
- Elderberry Oxymel
- Drying & Freezing Elderberries
Elderberry Jelly
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups elderberry juice, from 11 to 12 cups stemmed elderberries cooked with 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 4 1/2 cups sugar, not optional, see note
- 1 box, 1.75 oz pectin (I'm using Sure-Jell)
Instructions
Elderberry Juice
- Stem the elderberries, removing any woody parts and stem material. They're easiest to stem if you freeze the whole sprays of fruit for at few hours (or overnight) first. Frozen fruit pop off the stems easily, and the freezing process helps them release their juice for jelly.
- Once the elderberries are stemmed, place them in a saucepan with 1/2 cup of water. You'll need 11-12 cups of stemmed elderberries, or about 3 pounds of fruit, to get a yield of 3 cups of elderberry juice for this recipe.
- Bring the elderberries and water to a simmer and cook them for about 5 to 6 minutes, gently mashing them with the back of a spoon to help them release their juices. Once the fruit have fallen apart, remove the pan from the heat and strain the mixture through a jelly bag (or a mesh strainer lined with 2 layers of damp cheesecloth).
- Measure the resulting juice, you should have about 3 cups. If you have more than 3 cups, save the extra for another recipe. If you have less, add water or apple juice to bring the total up to 3 cups.
Making Elderberry Jelly
- If canning, prepare a water bath canner, jars and lids before beginning.
To make elderberry jelly, place 3 cups of elderberry juice into a pot and add the lemon juice and powdered pectin. Do not add sugar yet. Adding the sugar early will prevent your jelly from setting. - Stir the pectin to break up any clumps and ensure it's fully dissolved.
Turn on the heat and bring the mixture up to a boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.
After the pectin/juice mixture has boiled for 1 minute, add the sugar.
Return the mixture to a boil and boil for 1 minute. - Remove from the heat and ladle into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal with 2 part canning lids.
- If canning, process the jars in a water bath canner for 10 minutes (or 15 minutes if above 6,000 feet in elevation). Once the processing time is complete, turn off the heat and allow the jars to sit in the canner for an additional 5 minutes before removing them with a jar lifter to cool on a towel on the counter (this helps prevent siphoning).
- Allow to cool completely and check seals after 12 hours. Store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use. Properly canned and sealed jars will maintain peak quality on the pantry shelf for 12-18 months, and be safe to eat as long as they're sealed. Refrigerate after opening.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Jelly Recipes
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the recipe is probably good, but my google search took me to your site for instructions in using elderberry powder. I have a pound that I had hoped to use for encapsulation, but found it needs to be cooked. I have fresh elderberries for jelly and was hoping to use up the powdered version and make jelly, but it seems like no one has an answer, to include Mountain Rose Herbs where I got the powder. AI answer put you as the source, can you or anyone assist?
I haven’t made jelly from elderberry powder, and I don’t know of a tested recipe that uses it, so I can’t tell you how much to use. Powder doesn’t strain clear the way juice does, so I’d save it for a cooked syrup and make the jelly from your fresh berries.
Hello, Ashley! I have a small elderberry patch, and often make wine with them. However, I now have a canner so am considering making jam. Do you know how I could convert this recipe to use Pomona Pectin? Would I use the same amount of sugar substitute?
TIA, Susan, Florida
Elderberries aren’t acidic enough for canning, so they’re one of the few jam recipes that you cannot make as a reduced sugar jam. The sugar in elderberry jelly or elderberry jam is what’s preserving it. (Sugar substitutes or reduced sugar recipes are not safe in this case.) That said, if you’re making it as a refrigerator preserve and not canning it, then yes, you can use pomona’s and a sugar substitute or reduced sugar. As to the amount of sugar substitute, I’m not sure, because I don’t know how sweet those are. This recipe, with regular sugar, is quite sweet because it needs all that sugar for preservation. As a refrigerator preserve, you could use as much or little as you like…but I don’t have good advice here for you since I don’t work with sugar substitutes and personal sweetness tastes are so subjective.
I used to make elderberry jam years ago. The seeds gave it a slight crunch for the first month or two, which we enjoyed. After that they got soft and it was similar to other jams. There doesn’t seem to be a recipe for jam, just jelly. Is there a reason for that?
I do actually have a recipe for elderberry jam on my canning website (just not yet on this one). Here’s where you can find the recipe: https://creativecanning.com/elderberry-jam/
Hi, can I add ingredients like chopped apples and golden raisins?
You could definitely add the apples without issues. You do want to be careful adding low acid foods because this could impact the overall acidity which could impact the food safety.
I made elderberry jam from frozen berries. 9 cups of berries measured without smashing down resulted in 3 cups of juice and pulp. I removed the seeds and skins with a food mill rather than a sieve, and I STRONGLY recommend that people DO NOT use a food mill. Elderberry seeds contain a form a latex that will stick to the mill. It is SO STICKY. I was afraid I ruined the jam, but because it is so sticky (I had to use Goo Gone to remove it), it seems to have adhered to the mill leaving no detectable trace in the pulp and juice.
Thanks for that tip. I was wondering if a food mill would work…not!
My wife and I made jelly using this recipe and it was perfect!! Jelly set good and it was clear.I think it’s my new favourite. This is the first time we have had elderberries.I am hoping we have enough berries left to make two more batches. Thanks!!
You’re very welcome. We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe.
I am 78 years old and have been eating jelly made form wild fruit all my life. As my mother did, I always seal the jelly with paraffin and have never had a problem. What has happened to that idea??
This practice has been discontinued due to possible mold contamination.