Making Jam

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I have a pound of fresh picked blackberries, and 2kg of Jam Sugar.

I kind of know I need to boil them up together. Do I need to use water?

How long should I boil them for?

How will I know it's ready?

someone said something about needing a cold plate for testing, is this right?

Cheers.

The Black Oil

Unless they've changed the packaging you probably have checked the instructions on the back of the Jam Sugar. Akin to the ones on the Suicra website, go to the Recipes section, then Jams & Marmalades http://www.irish-sugar.ie/ There's a blackberry one on there.

I think the main thing is accuracy, otherwise the whole shebang may turn out a bit watery! Good luck.

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I got the Gem brand Jam Sugar in Superquinn.

Here is a kind of mish-mash of different recipes I saw.

First of all, I went at the blakberries with a potato masher, kind of broke them up a bit to release the juices, then I brought them to the boil, removed from the heat and added an equal amount of the Sugar. Then something happened that I wasn't expecting. The mix got even more liquidy, and I kind of panicked a bit, but brought them to the boil anyway, and left them on the boil for 4 minutes.

Then I had a plate in the fridge, took out a dollop of the jam and put it on the plate. Left it for a minute or two, and it had set, so I jarred it up. It's very tasty.

Carawaystick

that's pretty much it- half fruit and half sugar.
I use a fer slivers of an apple for the pectin to get it to set with ordinary sugar and maybe boil it for longer.
Washing the fruit in a colander,draining, and heating it over the lowest heat instead of mashing them too.

noby

I did something similar - blackberry and apple. That was last year, and I'm on the last jar now.
We didn't pick as many blackberries this year, and they all went into tarts/crumbles, so I might have to try a different tack this year.

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Went out and got another three and a half pound of Blckberries this morning.

Made another two jars of jam out of half of them, then ran out of jars

Have the other half in the freezer until I get more jars.

It's delicious again, but this week I didn't blend the fruit, just boiled it up and took a potato masher to it, then added the jam sugar, boiled until setting point and jarred it up.

It's absolutely delicious again.

By the time I'm finished I'll have about six jars of it, have orders for 4.

Fingalian

Sorry jam makers , I don’t mean to hijack your thread but I figured some of you might know what is a ‘flannel or linen crash jelly bag ‘ and where would I get one? It is mentioned in an old recipe for rose hip syrup and is used to filter out the prickly seed. Thanks.

The Black Oil

Went out and picked a little over a kilo of berries last night. Thanks, Des. It made 5 and half jars. Have yet to taste it!

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The Black Oil wrote: »

Went out and picked a little over a kilo of berries last night. Thanks, Des. It made 5 and half jars. Have yet to taste it!

A kilo is about 2.25 pounds, and you got five and a half jars! I'm impressed by that, I'll only get about five jars out of 3.5lbs of berries.

I prefer my second batch of jam actually, I won't be using a blender any more.

Also, I've still got strawberries growing, I only have one plant, so by the time the last few ripen I reckon I'll have a half pound. I've been freezing them as they ripen so I can make some strawberry jam from them.

And, I got about a pound of gooseberries, are they any good for jam?

The Black Oil

We didn't use a blender at all, potato masher is not a bad idea. Tasted it yesterday, it's scrummy! There are gooseberries growing in my gran's garden, don't know if anyone has tried to make jam out of them, but I'd imagine someone knows how to do it.

Interesting article here. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113079746