Rose and Berry Jam
My berries and other small fruits have been coming in with the full force of summer—raspberries, blueberries, serviceberries, red and white alpine strawberries, gooseberries, currants, blackberries, nanking cherries, and goumi berries have been shoved unceremoniously into the freezer. It seems like every other week I’m bringing them out to make something with them to free up space…
This berry jam has hints of rose from some leftover rose syrup I had, and the subtle rose flavor makes it delightfully delicate for tea time and other jam snacking. You can replace it with orange blossom or lavender (as I have in the past) which is just as gorgeous.
I recently purchased a food mill, which made this jam beautiful and uniform—I chose a stainless steel one to last me a lifetime (hopefully). You can choose to use pectin (as I did here) or reduce and add a bit of lemon juice and apple to set the natural pectins in the fruit. I prefer it slightly more tart than the jams you might find in the grocery stores, using only 40% sugar by weight, but many jam recipes call for 50-60%. I sometimes use a hot water bath to preserve and sometimes I don’t, since I gave away much of the jam this time around, I didn’t—I imagine my remaining jam will keep until we finish it.
Ingredients
- 1 lb mixed berries
- 1 tablespoon rose syrup
- .4 lb granulated white sugar
- 1 package pectin (optional) or 2 tablespoons lemon juice + 2 tablespoons finely minced apple
- Mason Jars
- Mash berries in pot and add sugar, bring to a simmer until fruits are softened. Strain through a food mill or colander to remove the skins and larger seeds.
- Return to pot and either reduce by 1/3rd and add the rose syrup, lemon juice, and apple mince, or add pectin and rose syrup. Remove from heat (too long heat will destroy the pectin, so if you get a poor gel, try adding it at the very end next time.)
- Jar and refrigerate.