Hi Paula,
I grew up western S.C. One of my most fond memories is walking with my grandmother picking muscadines. She was quite a cook and taught me a few tricks that I still use today. I would love to share these with you as you!
Storage:
Keep Muscadines in a covered shallow container on white paper towels; place in refrigerator for best results. KEEP DRY- Do not wash until ready to use.
Recipes:
Muscadine Fruit Filling

1 dry qt muscadines
1 c water
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp melted butter
Mix all ingredients together, simmer until thick.  Use in a pie, over crepes, or served with a hot homemade biscuit! This could be served with miniature tea biscuits for the reception buffet!

To Serve Fresh Chilled:
Large bowl, with ice

In separate smaller bowl:
muscadines
water, to rinse
Pink lemonade concetrate, melted, undiluted
White sugar crytals to coat

Rinse muscadines and drain.  Stir pink lemonade concentrate into bowl with muscadines to coat. Spread in a layer on wax paper covered surface, sprinkle with crystalized sugar until coated. Dry briefly (they will be sticky.)  Place back into a bowl that will sit inside larger bowl containing ice. This will keep them chilled for serving. These are a couple of my “best childhood memory dishes” to you, Paula!  Best wishes to your neice, and all your family during the holiday season!
Sincerely,
Lynne H. Clayton
204 Heathwood Drive
Liberty, SC 29657

By Lynne Clayton on November 05, 2010

You can use many of these recipes. Some things I do and most don’t. I cook fruit down in crockpot if making jam so the skins will fall apart.  Works well for crockpot apple butter also. If you want jelly, I use flour sack towels to strain instead of cheesecloth and let it drain overnight hanging over a pot. Makes the jelly more clear. Enjoy that jelly!

By Cheryl Bone on November 04, 2010

Mulled Muscadine Cider  
1 quart muscadine grape juice(see below)
Dash of ground allspice
2 (4-inch) sticks cinnamon
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.
Serve warm. Yield: 8 half-cup servings.

Scuppernong Juice  
Crush thoroughly 3 pounds (about 9 cups or 4 pints) fully ripe scuppernongs or muscadines.Add 1 cup water. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
Strain through sieve or cheese cloth.
Refrigerate and serve, or use in recipe above.

By Ann Reese (Rachel's mama) from Dublin on November 04, 2010

Hey Puala, I do my Muscaines just like I do my Grape an they have always been good.  I made one cooking of them this fall and they are good too. All you do is use 7 cups of surgar and one fruit pectin and 2 qt. of cooked fruit. You do it just like any other home made jellies.

By Sue Letson on November 04, 2010

Love the cotton pickers, this will be beautiful at the wedding. 
My Mama would take those grapes and just cook them down with sugar until they made jam.  A friend once told me his mother made the same jam and added spices, like cloves, cinnamon and whatever else you like.  So pretty on a wedding table served warm with tea biscuits!

I can’t believe I’m sending Paula Deen a recipe…never have I ever even sent anything to a “famous person”.  Haha,  Just thought my mom would like you to have it.

Love ya’ll

Barbara Enyard

By Barbara Enyard on November 04, 2010

What about some waldorf salad? All you need to add is some apples, pecans, celery, mayo, lemon juice and sugar!

By Whitney on November 04, 2010

My Momma taught me how to make home made jelly! All you need to do is add the grapes to a pan add a little water and boil them. When they reach the soft mushy stage you will need to run them through a sieve or food mill to make them into a juice. Next you will sweeten them and then follow any jelly recipe you have. My Momma was a farmer in Georgia and we made jelly out of just about any type of berry grape or fruit you can imagine. It is the most wonderful thing to serve your guests or your self home made jelly. I still make my own and refuse to buy that stuff in the store!

By Melissa Gress on November 04, 2010

Paula, I don’t have a recipe, but my Mother used to make muscadine jam for me and she cooked the hulls and added them to the jam.  It was so delicious and we put it on homemade buttered biscuits. Now since we are using jams on cream cheese for an appetizer with crackers, I’ll bet the muscadine jam would be awesome.  The muscadines are purple and the scuppernongs are golden. By the way, I have all of your cookbooks and have been to your restaurant and on your tour.  I love Savanna!!  I’ve also been to Bubba’s several times! I take your magazine and love it, too!! I can’t wait to make the Jezebel Sauce in your magazine for the holidays!!(In the Nov.-Dec issue)

By Sherryle Roland Hinton on November 04, 2010

Here is the best one.  MUSCADINE JELLY

4 Pounds of Muscadines
1 Cup Water
1 (1 3/4 ounce) Package Powdered Fruit Pectin
7 1/2 Cups Sugar

Remove stems and skins from muscadines, set skins and pulp aside. Discard stems.
Combine pulp and 1 c water in a Dutch Oven. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Press mixture through a sieve or food mill to remove seeds.
Place reserved skins in a large saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat, and simmer 5 to 10 min. or untill tender. Drain and chop skins, reserving liquid.
Combine pulp mixture and chopped skins.Place 6 cups fruit mixture, adding reserved liquid if necessary to make 6 cups,in a large Dutch oven. Stir in powdered fruit pectin, bring to rolling boil, stiring constantly.Add sugar, return to a rolling boil. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly Remove mixture from heat, skim off foam. Stir 5 minutes.
Quickly spoon hot mixture into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, wipe jar rims. Cover jars at once with metal lids, and screw on metal bands. Process jars in boiling-water bath 15 minutes. Yield: 5 pints.

Hope this works for u.  I sure love it.

By Peggy Cain Kilgore on November 04, 2010

Hi Paula—I’m a big fan of yours, follow you religiously and hope to see you in person someday.  I saw you got a load of muscadine grapes and asked folks for some recipes.  I’ve never seen nor cooked with them, but wanted to help you.  Here’s a few websites with recipes for you.  Hope they’re good ones:

http://www.fgga.org/graperecipes.html

http://www.lockmanvineyard.com/recipes.html

http://www.nccommerce.com/en/TourismServices/NurtureWineAndGrapeIndustry/GrapeGrowing/Muscadine/MuscadineRecipesandCookingTips.htm

http://www.wenkersvineyard.com/recipes.asp

God bless you and your family Paula.  Take care.

A Sassy Kansas City Gal,
Susan Dickey

http://www.wenkersvineyard.com/recipes.asp

By Susan Dickey on November 04, 2010

I have a muscadine vine in my yard (Scuppernons, greenish/yellow color)
One gallon of grapes.
I pinch the insides out. (I don’t like it with the skin).
Cook the grapes (medium heat) till seeds separate from pulp 30 to 40 min.
Sift the pulp through a strainer separating pulp from the seeds.
Place pulp on the stove add one box of pectin.
Bring this to a hard boil (about 3 minutes).
Add 4 1/2 cups of sugar. Bring to a hard boil ( about 5 min ).
Test mixture by using a teaspoon of mixture and placing it into the freezer for a few min. If mixture is runny add 1/4 box of pectin repeat procedure.
With a funnel fill the sterilized jars with mixture.  I usually fill to the base part where the lid screws on.
I clean the top of the jars off with hot water making sure no jam mixture is on the rim of the jar and screw on the sterilized lids and rings.
Place filled jars into hot water that covers the jar for about 10 minutes. When jars are cooling they will pop. Label the jar and store up to one year. This whole precedure takes about one hour. Happy eating!

By Norma Crafton on November 04, 2010

I really liked it although I was disappointed when I got to the end and there were no hints on recipes to use the muscadines in.  My aunt has them in her back yard in South Carolina and doesn’t know what to do with them.

By Donna Churchill on November 04, 2010

Hey Paula , you put up muscadine’s the same way you would any jelly/jam . Cook them down , strain if you want to , add your sugar and whatever else you use for your jellys’ . My Mom put some up last month ...... Congrats on the wedding .

By cynthia lee on November 04, 2010

Growing up in Eastern NC and now living on the Coast of NC, the Cotton ride, and “falling into grapes” is all too real and dear to my heart. These are the things memories are made from. Thanks for sharing. For the Wedding this weekend use the grapes for decor around platers. But to keep the men busy,and make them think they are making a punch in the kitchen.
Things needed:
Men that have nothing to do with the final plans
of the wedding and you need them busy! LOL
The grapes that they as men picked.
Sugar
a water source- a few cups
make them deseed the grapes-this may need alcohol to induce them (the men)
grapes,sugar,water,a bottle of sweet wine and a bottle of a chardney and they think they are cooking something and it will still turn out good if not great (CAUSE THEY MADE/DID SOMETHING)
Good Luck, weather will be chilly this weekend.
Michell

By Mitchell Moore on November 04, 2010

MUSCADINE GRAPE JELLY

For one batch of jelly, use about 3 quarts of grapes and 3 cups of water. Do not use too much water or you will ruin the flavor. Place in pot and bring to boil until skins are tender.
Remove from heat and put through fruit juice masher and strainer. When cool enough, place in refrigerator until the next morning.

Strain through 2 thicknesses of cheesecloth. The juice is ready.

1 box powdered pectin
1 tbsp. lemon juice
7 c. sugar

Measure juice into a large pot (about 8-10 quart size). Mix pectin with juice and bring quickly to a hard, rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Add sugar all at once.
Stir until sugar dissolves and bring to a full rolling boil (a boil that cannot be stirred down). Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat; skim off foam using a metal spoon. Pour at once into sterilized jelly jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.

Wipe jar edge with a damp towel and seal with new lids according to manufacturer’s instruction. Process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Makes about 8 half pint jars.

By LYNN BIHUN on November 04, 2010

YOU COULD MAKE SOME MUSCADINE JELLY.GREAT STUFF MY FAMILY COULD EAT IT BY THE JAR. ALSO,BAKE A HAM INSTEAD OF PUTTING RAISINS PUT MUSCADINES IN WITH THE HAM.

By VANESSA MARLOR on November 04, 2010

we had a Muscadine vine in our yard when i was growing up. i thought everyone had one, then i learned we were the lucky ones in the n’hood. Many a belly aches from eating too many at once i dont have a recipe, sorry. we always ate ‘em raw. hope y’all find one in time. y’all gonna have Muscadine wine too? ive heard its good.
Congrats to Corrie, shes lucky to have such a dedicated team working for her wedding.

By Donna S on November 04, 2010

Here is the recipe I use every year and we never have any left:
MUSCADINE JELLY  

1 gallon muscadines
Water to cover muscadines
4 1/2 c. sugar
1 box Sure Jell Light Pectin
2 c. water

Remove seeds from 1 gallon of muscadines. Put muscadines in pan and cover with water. Bring to full boil. Cover and simmer until tender. Extract juice in damp jelly bag in frame over bowl.
Measure 4 cups sugar from measured amount and 1 box Sure Jell Light Pectin in small bowl. Stir Sure Jell Light mixture into fruit juice. Bring mixture to full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly.

Quickly stir in remaining sugar. Bring to full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling for 1 minute and 45 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with large metal spoon. Fill all jars immediately.

By Debbie M on November 04, 2010

You can make the jelly by following the grape jelly recipe in the suregel package,also you can use the hulls to make perserves.enjoy….

By Sue Dees on November 04, 2010

I did a quick Internet search and found tons of recipes for muscadines…I suggest you do a search too, decide what you want to make from the results - too many to list! Good luck and enjoy!

By Dot Quaid on November 04, 2010