Blackberry Jam

OH DEAR!

What a kerfuful!

So I've had these blackberries in the freezer, taking up precious freezer space for a couple of weeks now. Since the beginning I have had every intention that I would make Poppa's blackberry jam.

So, over the past couple of weeks I'd done some "Sarah Research"...meaning, I've loosely done nothing and figured it would be an easy process and I could just wing it. I emailed my aunt and spoke to my Mum to see if either them had Poppa's recipe. Nope, my aunt hates kitchen/cooking work, and Mum has never been a jam maker. Both suggested Poppa's old beat up copy of Better Homes Cookbook, the big old red one, with the duct tape down the side.

I finally got Poppa's cookbook and flipped through it, but no blackberry jam information was listed. Both my Mum and my aunt then just figured he used the recipe on the pectin pack.

So this past weekend, while I was out at Wal-mart looking for a juice jug, I walked passed their canning section. It occured to me, that with my husband out of town this week, it would be the perfect time to get to making some jam, so I'd better grab some supplies. They had all kinds of stuff, but I didn't want to worry about all of that, so I just grabbed "what I would need". A box of 12 250mL jars (the no-name brand), 12 jar labels, and pectin. Not sure which pectin to buy, I bought both the regular crystals and the sugar-free crystals. Poppa probably didn't make sugar-free, but I'm a Weight Watchers girl, so sugar-free would probably be the better option. I glanced at the quantities on the pack.

Regular Certo - 2 cups crushed strawberries (no problem)
No sugar need Bernardin - 4 cups crushed fruit (again no problem)

I had like 8 cups of blackberries...perfect. I grabbed one of each, and I'd make a batch of each...right? RIGHT! (soooooo not right)

I had originally scheduled Wednesday for jam making, but Tuesday after coming home from the gym, I figured I'd start the process. I'd figured out along the way that I would have to sterilize the jars. No problem. I have a pot that I can lie them down in to boil.

So I start sterilizing 6 jam jars,, for one batch, 3 jars at a time in my not so huge pot. I put them out on the counter to dry off, facing down...don't want any germs to get in my nicely sterilized jars now.

And THIS is where I started having problems. I started reading the different recipes on the packages...more closely...those quantities were for NO-COOK jam. That's NOT what I wanted. So as I looked closer I realized I would need WAY more berries and WAY more sugar. No problem, I'd just make one batch, instead of two.

I read a little bit more and realized that it would definitely be a small batch, because it didn't occur to me ahead of time that CRUSHED berries would be less quantity (higher density) than what I had frozen...and FROZEN...gotta get them out and start thawing them. What I didn't realize at 10am was there was no rush...I was going to be figuring this out for the next 3 hours!

Upon reading a little further online about how to sterilize the jam jars, I noticed the term water-bath being used...but not for the sterilization, but for the jam AFTER it was made and in the jars...what? And recommendations for a canner bath which is a huge pot with a can rack, and then special canning tongs, and a canning funnel...and *GACK*. I'm not running out now to get all that. So...why...? Why do all these sites recommend this 10 minutes boiling (longer if you're above sea level) for already boiled and jarred jam?

Because I could kill people with my jam if bacteria gets in...WHAT?!?!? Well...now I can't make the jam. I need these tools, I can't afford to invest in something that I'm not even sure if I'll use it again. I go over the instructions on the Certo package again, because I don't ever remember seeing anything about boiling AFTER you're done, or killing people with bacteria. That's where I find a phone number for help at ANY point in your jam making. So I call.

I ask the nice lady who answers what to do after Step 5 (the instructions end at Step 5) Cover with lids and screw rings on tightly. She informs me of the "inverstion method". I ask her what this entails. She explains that after you've sealed the jars, you turn them upside down, leave them for five minutes and then turn them back right side up. WHAT?!?!? That's it? That saves me tons of money in equipment and tons of boiling and all sorts of other work and stress? Yup. AND this is what you at Certo and Kraft recommend? Yup. AND...I'm not going to give anyone botulism?!?!? Nope. Huh? Okay.

After I get off the phone I got into a bit of a panic and I call my Mum. What did Poppa do? (Poppa would have done it the "right" way, and I've never gotten sick from his jam or canned goods). Mum doesn't really remember. Well there was boiling water. But yeah, for sterilizing the jars...but did he boil them with the jam in them? She doesn't remember. Oh the questions I wish I'd asked him! She suggests I contact Auntie Fran (not my actual aunt)...as she makes jam all the time. But she's not home today. Again...guess I'm waiting until tomorrow.

So, now I'm also very confused how does turning a jar upside down, for 5 minutes, save you from making a person very, very ill, compared with boiling for 10 minutes. I Twitter, I Facebook, I Google. I send Auntie Fran an message on Facebook, in case it's faster for her to reply this way. In my now"Panicked-Sarah-Research" I start to realize that hard core old school jammers are fear-mongering alarmists. You MUST boil the jam. Desease, pestillence, horror. However, the "inverters" are more laid back, some of them never thought of doing it differently, it's what their mothers and grandmothers did before them.

Hmmmmmmmm? Do I dare? Do I dare turn a jar over and hope I don't make my friends and family ill from my delicious Poppa-jam?

The phone rings...I recognize that number...it's Auntie Fran...YAY! In my still excited/panicked energy I try to sum up the past couple of hours to her. And she laughs. She says she doesn't even turn them over. She sterilizes them, of course, keeps them hot, keeps the lids almost boiling, fills the hot jars with the hot jam and seals the hot lids and has never had a problem.

Well...that seals it for me. If Auntie Fran, who has been jamming for years can use this method, so can I. YAY...I'm back on the jam plan! I'm a little worried about how to keep my jars warm before I fill them, since I only have one big pot. But a good friend on Facebook, who has already talked me down once in my jam adventure, suggests covering them in the sink with boiling water. They've already been sterilized and once you start making the jam, the water won't cool that fast. BRILLIANT!

So, the berries are defrosted and I start crushing them. That's when I realize I do not have enough berries for ANY of the recipes. As I'm working with blackberries and none of the recipes even LISTS blackberries I'm looking at the raspberry recipes. I'm about a cup of crushed berries short...that's like...2 cups at least of regular berries...Nooooooo! There are no more berries on the bushes I'm sure. I stopped picking at least a week ago, if not more. I don't even know where to find more blackberrries...and I'm not going to pervert my jam by mixing in the horrible giant store bought things. Yuck!

I go back online and start Googling again...I find that Certa has a liquid pecting recipe that calls for less berries...YES! There's a home hardware behind my house. They have EVERYTHING. I'll just pop over there. I hop in the car and rush in...looking everywhere. The manager asks what I'm looking for. They have pectin, but they don't have the liquid Certa. Noooooo...Do you think the Metro across the street would have it? Instead of answering, he calls over to the customer with whom he was speaking before me. "Mary...do you have liquid Certa?". Yup, she says. Mary is the owner of the Berry Farm down the road. SHUT UP! Talk about good luck. Well then I'll just pop on over there.

I realize the Metro is closer, like right there, I could just go right in, and check first. But no. I see this as a message, it's luck, more than coincidence right? So I hop in the car and drive 5 minutes further up the road to the berry farm. Yup, they've got the pectin I need...YAY...but NOPE...they don't take interac and I never carry cash. Well then WHY did the coincidence occur? *sigh* And I drive all the way back to the Metro, hoping beyond hope that they have the liquid stuff.

It occurs to me at this point that maybe this jam just isn't worth it. Seriously, this is a LOT more work than I thought it would be. But I pop into the Metro, and sure enough they have a box. Better pick up more sugar while I'm here...because you never know (first intelligent decision I've made on the spot all day). I rip open the package in the car to make SURE it's the right recipe and that I don't need anything else that I don't have.

I hurry back home, and now I'm READY! I get the pot and kettle boiling and I've got the jars in the sink. But wait. I only sterilized 6 because the other recipes said they'd yield 6 cups. This recipe yields 8! So while the water is boiling on the stove I sterilize another 3 jars. No worries. I add these to the sink and start covering with boiling water. Two pots and two kettles of boiled water later and my jars are hot, sterilized, and ready to be filled. I also put a smaller pot on the stove with the lids and screw caps and turn it up to almost boiling so they'll be ready to top my jam.

Now onto the jam!

Certo Liquid Pectin Recipe for Raspberry Jam
Ingredients
3 3/4 cups crushed berries
1/4 cup lemon juice
6 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch CERTO Liquid Pectin
Directions
1. In large saucepan stir together prepared fruit, sugar & lemon juice if listed in recipe.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Boil hard 1 min.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in CERTO Liquid Pectin
5. Stir and skim for 5 min. to prevent floating fruit (for marmalade stir 7 min.) Pour into warm sterilized jars to 1/4 inch from rim. Cover with lids and screw rings on tightly.
(and then just turn them upside down...but this is not actually written anywhere...hmmmm...so I can't sue?)

I am blessed because I have exactly...no more no less than...3 3/4 cups of crushed berries. I'm also happy because I was originally just shy of 7 1/2 cups of sugar. But I've got the extra sugar now too. So I start the process. And this is soooooooo easy. OMG...if I'd known how easy this was I'd have been more prepared earlier. (yes, I realize the ideocy of this statement...but I did actually think it)

I get to the end of 5 minutes of stirring and skimming...and...it's like I have a bowl of blackberry soup. There's no gelling happening, no thickening, no nothing. Liquid berries. Auntie Fran had mentioned that sometimes you need to add more sugar...but...I've already taken it off the heat. What do I do now?!?!?

I call Auntie Fran back...a little panicky after my feeling of success. And stressing that my "hot jars" in the sink are now getting cooler...OMG...I'm going to make people sick if I don't figure this out! And I can't waste my only blackberries...I can't wait another whole year to figure this out. Fran suggests following the directions at the bottom of the CERTO instructions for "Remaking Cooked Jam" which basically consists of adding more sugar and boiling again. So...back I go. This is also where I start to remember Poppa saying something about having a bad batch of blackberry jam that wouldn't set, it was too runny, not enough sugar. This where my decision to pick up an extra bag of sugar has been my best and most brilliant idea yet. Things could have gone quite awry now if I'd had to run out and buy more sugar! Alrighty...here I go.

So I add another full cup of sugar and boil for another minute then I do the stir and skim off the heat for 5 more minutes...still nothing, so I go back again one more time. This time is "seems" a little thicker...doesn't it? It's definitely bubbling differently. I've got tiny little jam burn marks all over my fingers where the jam has splurted out of the pot. Like when I make chili and it thickens and ruins the top of the stove and counter with all the splurting...yup, it MUST be thicker! Well, that's it, I can't keep doing this, I'll have caramel or hard candy on my hands if I keep this up. Let's just hope it will set in the jars...right.

I get an over mitt, tongs, a big spoon, two tea towels, and clean damp cloth and a clean skinny spatula. I use the tongs to grab the jars out of the water, the oven mitt to hold it, the big spoon to delicately fill the hot jar with hot jam (yes, I can see how a wide mouthed funnel would be handy at this point), I go around the inside of the jar with the spactula to remove any air bubbles (something I read somewhere, not sure if it's actually necessary, it's probably for the botulism again), I wipe the top clean with the damp cloth, I take the tongs again to grab the lid and place it on top, and the screw cap and place it on top. With one of the tea towels and the over mitt I tighten the lid as tight as I can, and place it upside down on top of the other tea towel. I then repeat this another 7 times! As soon as I'm done I turn on the timer for 5 minutes. I start turning the first one back over before the 5 minutes is up, because it's been upside down for a good 10 or 15 minutes now with all of the jarring I did since filling it.

And sure enough, shortly thereafter...the first jam jar top "pops"...which means, it's sealed.

Sooooooo...the jam in the jars is still on the counter, all the lids have "popped", and the jam tastes yummy. I sampled it off my fingers while filling the jars. I'm going to go back again and retighten, as the lids and jars have cooled and I want to keep a good tight seal.

So although "stricting jamming regulation" (seriously, tons of quoting of regulation and rules about this stuff) does not adivse the "inversion method", CERTO, Kraft, Auntie Fran, and tons of other laid back jammers don't seem to mind in the least.

I'm just excited to try it and hope that it has set to some sort of "jamminess", and not just liquid berries. However, if it does not work properly...I'm going to chalk it up to a batch of ice cream topper...I'll even investigate mixing it with vodka or some other liquid to make it a boozy topping. ;) But I'll make sure to do better "Sarah Research" before trying anything else new.