Grape jelly substitutes

Structurally identical: a strained fruit jelly with a firm pectin set, no seeds, and roughly the same sugar level, so it melts and thickens exactly the same way in a saucepan. The flavour is tarter and cleaner than grape, more redcurrant sharpness and less of that candied purple sweetness, which most people find an improvement in a savoury glaze. Colour goes bright ruby rather than dark purple. It is the standard European stand-in and is stocked almost everywhere grape jelly is not.

Best for

cocktail meatballs, barbecue and cranberry glazes, sauces for pork and game, glazing

Slightly tarter, so if the recipe was already sharp, add a teaspoon of sugar per half cup.

The right flavour, slightly different body. Grape jam includes the crushed fruit rather than just the juice, so it is thicker, less glossy and a little grainier, and it may contain skin flecks. In a sandwich this is arguably better because there is more actual grape flavour. In a glaze it will not go quite as clear and shiny as jelly does. If your jar is labelled with skins or seeds, sieve it while warm before using it in a sauce.

Best for

peanut butter and jelly, toast, meatball sauce, thumbprint cookies

Look for it in international and kosher aisles, where Concord grape products are most common.

The neutral workhorse. Apple jelly has almost no flavour of its own beyond clean sweetness, a firm glassy set and no colour to speak of, so it does grape jelly's structural job well and contributes nothing else. That makes it excellent in savoury cooking, where chili sauce, ketchup or barbecue sauce is providing the actual flavour, and poor in a sandwich, where you would notice immediately that the grape has vanished. The finished sauce will be lighter in colour.

Best for

cocktail meatballs, glazed sausages, ham and pork glazes, thickening a sweet sauce

Add a tablespoon of dark grape juice or a splash of balsamic if you want the dark colour back.

The usual British and Australian answer to a recipe that calls for grape jelly, and a good one. Blackcurrant is dark purple like Concord grape, so the colour is right, and it is far more tart and wine-like, which cuts richness in a meatball sauce or a glaze better than grape jelly does. In a peanut butter sandwich it reads as sharper and more adult but works completely. If you use blackcurrant jam rather than jelly, expect small seeds and a slightly thicker body.

Best for

peanut butter sandwiches, meatball and sausage glazes, sauces for duck and lamb, toast

Because it is tarter, taste the sauce before adding any extra vinegar or lemon the recipe calls for.

Any smooth sweet jam will run the meatball or barbecue recipe successfully, because what those recipes actually need is a jar of concentrated sweet fruit to balance a tangy chili or tomato sauce. Strawberry gives the sweetest, roundest result, plum the darkest and most caramelised, raspberry the tartest. All three are looser than jelly, so the sauce will take a few extra minutes of simmering to thicken to the same glossy cling. Sieve out seeds for a smooth sauce.

Best for

cocktail meatballs, slow cooker sausages, barbecue sauces, glazed chicken wings

Plum or damson jam is the closest of these in colour to grape jelly.

Honest assessment: this gets you real grape flavour and none of the set. Simmer the juice and sugar for fifteen to twenty minutes until syrupy, and you have a grape syrup that tastes right and stays runny. In a cooked sauce that is fine, because you can thicken it with a teaspoon of cornstarch slaked in cold water. On a sandwich it will soak straight through the bread. Use this when flavour matters more than texture and you have no jelly of any kind.

Best for

meatball sauce, glazes brushed on hot food, dessert sauce

Bottled Concord grape juice reduces down to the most grape-tasting result; white grape juice tastes thin and generic.