Off the Urban Grid

How to Make Homemade Jam

Once you have your equipment for making homemade jam, you can start putting those backyard strawberries, raspberries and blackberries to good use. So where do you begin? The instructions below will help you make approximately 8 eight-ounce jars or four pints of jam. After you get comfortable with the jam making process, you can customize your creations and make triple berry jams too.

• Pick the freshest and ripest berries from your backyard garden. If you’re familiar with and have access to wild blackberries, you can pick those too. Yet another option is to use berries that you picked and froze earlier.

• Measure 8 cups of unprepared berries. Or for a triple berry jam, measure four cups of crushed strawberries, 1 cup of raspberries and 1 cup of blackberries. It’s important to go by the directions on the pectin so your jam will thicken properly.

• Sterilize your jelly jars in the dishwasher or use a large pot and prepare a hot water bath. It’s best to keep the jars hot so they don’t break when you pour in the hot jelly.

• Rinse off the fruit with cold water. For strawberries, you have to remove the hulls, but with the other berries, you need to take off any remaining stems and leaves.

• Measure the proper amount of sugar. Depending on what type of pectin you’re using, you will need a different amount. For example, with low sugar pectin, 4 cups of sugar is enough, but you will need 7 cups of sugar when using regular pectin.

• Mix approximately ¼ cup of sugar with the pectin. Keep this separate from the rest of the sugar, because you don’t want the pectin to clump.

• Add the berries and sugar and pectin mix in a pot and bring it to a boil. It should take between 5 and 10 minutes for it to start boiling.

• Put the lids of the jars in a pot of hot water to prepare them.

• Mix the rest of the sugar into the pot with the berries and boil for an additional minute. Then remove the pot from the stove.

• Skim off any excess foam and test the jelly for thickness. If it’s not thick enough, you can mix in more pectin and boil again for another minute.

• Fill the sterilized jars with the jam and seal the lid by tightening the ring.

• Use jar tongs to put the jelly jars in a boiling water bath for five minutes.

• Remove the jars from the boiling water and let them cool. Then refrigerate and label them, because it’s best to use them within 6 to 8 months.

Tags: easy jam, easy jelly, homemade jam recipe, make homemade jam, make homemade jelly