Blackberry Jam

Cliff and I went blackberrying this evening and at first I thought I would make a pie but now I have decided to try jam and the following recipe from the Good Food magazine.

Ingredients

900g fruit (blackberries, plums, raspberries or strawberries), prepared weight
900g golden granulated sugar
knob of butter


Put the fruit into a preserving pan or large heavy-based saucepan. For blackberries, add 50ml of water and 1½ tbsp of lemon juice; for plums (halved and stoned), use 150ml of water; for strawberries, add 3 tbsp of lemon juice (no water); and for raspberries, add nothing. Bring to the boil.
Lower the heat. For blackberries, simmer for 15 minutes; for plums, simmer for 30-40 minutes; for raspberries, simmer for 2 minutes; for strawberries, simmer for 5 minutes. The fruit should be soft.
Tip in the sugar, stir over a very low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Raise the heat, bring to a full rolling boil, then rapidly boil blackberries for 10-12 minutes, plums for 10 minutes, raspberries for 5 minutes or strawberries for 20-25 minutes - don't stir though - until the setting point of 105C is reached.
Remove from the heat, skim off any excess scum, then stir a knob of butter across the surface (this helps to dissolve any remaining scum). Leave for about 15 mins so the fruit can settle. Pour into sterilised jars, label and seal.

Mary Jane's Strawberry Jam in Winter

Strawberry Jam in Winter....

Make when frozen strawberries are found on sale.

I buy a bag of frozen strawberries and it on the counter for about 20 minutes to thaw a bit.

I put the thawing berries into a pot with about a cup of brown sugar and the juice of a juicy lemon.

I cook the ingredients over medium heat till it is at stage where it darkens, thickens and "spits" at you. You need to stir constantly or it will burn.

Then I take it off the heat and let it cool a bit before putting into some jars. When fully cooled, the jars of jam must be refrigerated (at least I think they "must" refrigerated but I may be wrong).

I've played with this one a bit. I like it with orange rind grated into it but Mike prefers it without.

It's more like strawberry preserves than strawberry jam.

I don't think I'll ever use fresh strawberries for jam again as the frozen ones here are usually very good for jam and usually cheaper than fresh even when fresh are at their peak. mj

Strawberry Jam

Mary Jane said that she had made jam from frozen strawberries. I haven't been able to find such a recipe but I have come up with the following that might be of interest:

750g strawberry
125g granulated sugar
a squeeze of lemon juice

1. Rinse and hull the strawberries but don't dry them.
2. Pile them into a stainless steel or enamel pan with the sugar.
3. Roughly crush the fruit with your hands or a fork then place the pan over a low to medium heat.
4. Stir occasionally for 15-20 minutes, spooning off the pink froth as you go.
5. The jam should be thick enough to fall slowly from the spoon, like syrup, but nowhere near thick enough to set.
6. Pour into a bowl and serve with scones, (where it will drip down your fingers), or slices cut from a sponge cake, spoon over goat's yogurt or allow to cool and stir into a mess of whipped cream, fresh berries and crumbled meringue.
(Nigel Slater, Observer, June 22, 2008)

Strawberry Jam

1KG strawberries
800 g granulated sugar
the juice of a large lemon

1. Wash and hull the berries. Keep the small ones whole and halve or even quarter the large ones.

2. Put them into a stainless-steel pas with the sugar and lemon juice and bring to the boil.

3. Boil rapidly for 15 minutes or until the fruit is starting to look soft and translucent.

4. Skim off the pink froth that appears on the top then spoon into the sterilised jars, seal carefully and leave to cool.

(A fairly light set)