Blackberry Jam!
A few weeks ago, @bingbabe did one of her many 10k runs but came back with a huge basket full of blackberries.
This fruit grows wild in England and is very common at this time of the year. Where the basket came from, I’m none the wiser.
The picture below are wild blackberries growing at the rear of my house.
The conversation was had next was something like this...
‘What are we going to do with those?’, I said.
‘Make some jam of course’, came back the response.
‘Have you made it before?’
‘Never’
Sigh; It was a case of get on the internet and discover a recipe. We used this one which proved quite sufficient but didn’t really deliver in the quantities mentioned.
Ingredients
Makes: 8 (340g) jars blackberry jam
1.8kg blackberries
85ml water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1.8kg caster sugar
We had around 1.2kg of blackberries, and just less than 1kg of caster sugar. Everything else seemed good and OK.
In a large pan, combine the blackberries, water and lemon juice. Simmer gently over a very low heat for 1 to 2 hours, or until the fruit has broken down and is soft and pulpy.
Easy enough, we left them for around 1.5 hours simmering and the fruit did indeed break down.
Add the sugar to the blackberry mixture and bring to the boil, stirring constantly.
I was balking at this. 1kg is a LOT of sugar and that stuff is NOT good for us. Talk about a pile of the white stuff and according to the recipe this still is not enough.
Begin testing for the setting point by dropping a little jam on a cold plate. If you push it with your finger and it wrinkles, it is ready.
I wasn’t too sure what this meant. I was prodding it and getting my fingers sticky. Is that what should be happening?
Skim any foam from the top of the jam and transfer to sterilised jars and seal immediately. Leave undisturbed in a dark place for 24 hours.
There didn’t appear to be any foam and putting boiling jam in glass jars didn’t seem right, but we did it anyway.
There was supposed to be 8 jars from 1.8kg, but we only managed 3 jars from 1.2kg.
24 hours was a little long for me, and the next day I couldn’t wait to try the jam. After getting past the ‘this has far too much sugar’ phase, I added some butter to these Hot-Cross Buns and then spread the jam quite thickly.
The constitution seemed good, the seeds are small with no huge lumps and the taste is simply wonderful. We gave away one jar, and one of the two is already half empty.
If you see those Blackberries growing then grab some and make some jam while they are still attached to the bushes!
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Thanks @pennsif!, appreciated!
You are welcome.
You've reminded me that I saw some brambles hidden away behind some garages earlier in the summer. It was one of those marginal places where the bushes could grow undisturbed and was covered in flowers and insects. Glad the jam turned out all right - I did experiment with a 60/40 ratio long ago (60% fruit to 40% sugar), it doesn't last as long and I always kept it in the fridge, but it doesn't look like it has to last long in your household!
No preservatives means not as long before the mold creeps in, I know. We had some made by someone else before this batch, but I think ours is better.
The other stuff was too lumpy, but this is smoother. I'm about to eat some on my toast now :)
Yes, yours does sound really jammy. Enjoy!
by the sounds of it, the jam won't get the chance to go moldy. Enjoy.
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I would love some. I grew up with blackberries. Does she make blackberry cobbler? My favorite as well as the jam.
She is sure healthy with all that running. :)
I don't know what blackberry cobbler is!
well I do now.. after looking.. and no not that adventurous yet :)
Black berries here are expensive which is imported, and I have not tried the fresh berries yet. What a wonderful place you live in where they could easily be found growing wild. Your jam looks very delicious and I have no choice but to settle for the bottled jams with lots of preservatives lol. Awesome share buddy.
Where do you live where blackberries cant be picked, Hong Kong?
I'm from the Philippines and no black berries around. We have a lot of mangoes, bananas and coconuts. Although there are some imported ones from the supermarket that is expensive but still picking your own is very different.
a niece of my wife brings on some homemade strawberry jam every now and then. I have to be quick otherwise my kids eat everything :)
I know only too well about this one :)
Looks deliciou! This does seem to be a very good year for blackberries. My garden was full of them, but I love them so much I just ate the all on the spot! I made jam a few years ago, from blackberries, rosehips, haw berries and rowan berries. I needed a LOT of sugar as those berries are pretty tart. There was enough jam to make a few Xmas presents.
All those mixed up? What was the taste like..?
It had a really unusual fragrant taste. It was very nice but more like jelly than jam, because I put too much lemon juice in.
Yummy!! Reminds me of the grape jelly we recently made from wild grapes. So delicious!
Did it say what kind of jars to use? The standard Ball canning jars are smaller than what it looks like you might have been using. It is possible that at those sizes it would have filled 8. Who knows though. It looks tasty! My mom used to make strawberry jam and I would eat it all the time. That does seem like a lot of sugar! That is the cool thing about making it yourself, you can adjust those quantities unlike the stuff you buy at the store.
I don't know where @bingbabe got those jars from. One is a regular jam jar, the others I don't know what they are called but they are bigger than regular ones.
Ah, okay. It looks like it turned out great no matter what size jar you put it in! :)
I've stopped and looked at this post several times. I have an incurable weakness for blackberry jam and blackberries in general. They grew wild where I grew up...
The only thing that can even remotely compare in my world is Huckleberries. I got some of that this summer when I was up north. I mean, is there a human that can resist a huckleberry milkshake? Not this one.
And I also had a blackberry shake just to keep the equation balanced.
Never heard of a huckleberry milkshake or huckleberries. Sounds interesting though!