So as the berries ripened, I thought I'd blog about how easy it is to make.
One of the biggest pointers I can give is to get everything, and I mean everything ready before you put heat to your berries. I pretty much take over our entire kitchen. Lay out all your stuff - berries, sugar, pectin, spoon, clean jars and lids, and anything else you think you might need. I also put a piece of tin foil down wherever jam might fall. Makes for easy clean up.
Next up I pulse the berries for a few seconds. No need to completely macerate the berries. The heat will do a great job later.
My very precise recipe is that I just wing it. One colander of berries (about 3-4 pounds) about 5 cups of sugar, and one packet of pectin. Wait till it comes to a boil before adding the pectin. The high temp activates the thickening power of the pectin.
When it comes to a boil, it will expand tremendously.
Last year my jam was a bit thin, so I boiled it for about 4-5 minutes this time to see if would be a bit thicker.
Now I just pour it into a measuring cup, then transfer to my clean jars.
This year I got 9 jars out of this batch.
My "poor mans water bath" method of preserving did not work so well. Some of the jars had a vacuum, and some didn't. I give most of this stuff away. So it gets used quickly, but next time, I'm going to try the immersion method of preserving so when I want to preserve something else, I've got it down.
See you next time...
