In the Pacific Northwest, I equated hot summer nights in July with making fresh berry jams. With the box fan in the back screen door, I spent hours over steaming hot pots, stirring down the bubbling jam. The hot, sticky job filled the air with a pleasingly, fragrant intensity.
The benefits of air conditioning don’t require late nights and box fans. It’s a good feeling to preserve an abundant berry harvest to line pantry shelves for your family to enjoy all year.
Here in the Nevada desert, we don’t have much of a berry harvest. Still, there’s nothing like the taste of homemade raspberry jam! And since “where there’s a will, there’s a way”, I’ve turned to frozen raspberries.
If you have fresh berries readily available, use them. If not, thawed berries produce a flavorful jam that far surpasses the flavor of any store-bought jam. Plus, I control the other ingredients, which includes my cardinal rule of never using more sugar than fruit.
Hope you’ll give this recipe a try. Use a deep, heavy pot, potholders and keep young children back as you carefully adjust the burner to cook the jam while keeping splatters to a minimum.
Homemade Raspberry Jam
Ingredients
- 6 cups raspberries crushed
- 1 box pectin
- 6 cups sugar
- 1/4 tsp butter optional
Instructions
- Place crushed berries in a large pot. Stir in a box of pectin.
- Bring to a rolling boil (a boil that doesn’t stir down) while stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Add butter to reduce foaming, if desired.
- Bring back to a full rolling boil. Boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Using a narrow mouth funnel, ladle or pour jam into pint jars. To seal the jars, immediately wipe off the lip of the jar, top with a lid and secure with a ring. Using potholders or a dry towel, invert the hot jar and it will seal while it cools.
- Once cooled, remove the ring, clean the jar and it’s ready for storage on the shelf.
- If you are not sealing the jars, store the jam in the refrigerator. Makes about 4 ½ pints of jam.
