Can-Do Attitude: Black and Red Jam

Ginormous blackberry!

My signature jam?  Black & Red, combining blackberries and raspberries into a wonderfully jammy goodness!

Next to apple sauce, a simple jam is a piece of cake.  Jelly is difficult because you have to strain, but a jam is is just mash, solidify, and jar!

Black & Red recipe:
1 quart crushed blackberries and raspberries
1 pouch of liquid pectin
6 1/2 cups of sugar (yikes, right?!  substitute splenda or sugar equivalent at will...)

First, put your quart of fruit in your pot.

Then, use a potato masher (or whatever you have) to mash the fruit.  I leave it fairly coarse since it'll cook out nicely as you go through the process.

Then, add your 6 and 1/2 cups of sugar.  All jam recipes require a boat load of sugar.  I like using the Splenda Sugar Blend because it cuts the requirement in half, but it's still a lot sugar.  If you want it to taste nice, then you do it.

Once you have it mixed together, bring to a boil until all of the sugar dissolves.  Then, add one pouch of liquid pectin, and bring to a hard boil for one minute.  Be careful because you can easily foam up and boil over.


Skim off any extra foam from the top of the pot to keep your jars clean. 

Turn the heat off the pot after a minute of boiling.  Then, load into your hot jars with at least 1/4 inch of space before sealing with your vacuum sealing lids.

To process, place your jars in a large boiling pot of water, covering the jars by at least one inch of water.  Leave in the boiling water for 10 minutes, remove, and cool. It takes about 24 hours or so to set up the jam, but after that, serve up and enjoy!

Chunky delicious-ness!!