Too many Blueberries, Give them too me since I'm from PA also, Here is a recipe we like,
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup bourbon
2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) blueberries
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1.Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and just starting to brown, 2 to 4 minutes. Add garlic and jalapeno and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add bourbon, increase heat to high and bring to a boil; cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Stir in blueberries, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, molasses and allspice; return to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze.

I am still (after all these years) trying to perfect a barbecue sauce recipe for canning. Close, but not quite there yet.

One thing I have done is take a jar of blueberry chutney and add a chipotle pepper to it. Whizzed it up in the blender, add a splash more liquid (vinegar or lime or whatever is handy) and it made a great barbeque sauce, especially for chicken.

I have the recipe for the chutney somewhere in my notes (I took about 5 recipes, combined them and tweaked it to my taste). I know it has crystallized ginger, red wine or white wine vinegar - depending on my mood, dried currants or you could use raisins, but I don't use much, a bit of brown sugar, and a spice bag. I think I used cinnamon, a clove or two, some star anise I happened to have, plus mustard seeds.

Let me know if you're interested, and I'll dig out the recipe.

malna - I'm interested. I took the basic Blueberry Lime jam (no pectin) and added a little chipotle powder and Triple sec, it's not bad on crackers and cream cheese but I was thinking it would make good mop sauce for pork or chicken. I just didn't know what to mix in. It doesn't have to be a canning recipe, though it would be great if you have one. Like lpink, I don't really want to use ketchup but I do have (or hopefully will have) tomatoes. In fact, since it's already blue, this might be a good thing to do with those Black Krims I have!

(haven't done anything with the tomatoes this AM, been blanching and freezing beans)

I'll dig it out. I think I made it three or four times, all a bit different. I know one was sweet, then I started experimenting with more savory flavors. Sigh - I just realized I have two binders stuffed with notes and experiments. Good reason to go through and toss - type up - or try again!

Thanks for that recipe Jimmy! It sounds delish, if I can just get my brain around the concept of ketchup and blueberries!

That's why I'm thinking I might experiment with the "plum sauce" canning recipe in the Ball Blue Book. I have made that before and liked it, and it has ginger in it, which we love in everything! I guess I could mix blueberries and tomatoes, but that just seems kinda weird to me. But many of the recipes I see call for blueberries and ketchup, so I guess it's the way to go. Does commercial ketchup even have tomatoes in it I wonder! :)

Malna's recipe has promise (thanks!), another I was thinking of trying to sub blueberries for peaches in the Ball Peach BBQ sauce or Peach Chutney.

Blueberry Chutney

The Sweet Version
4 cups blueberries (2 pints works)
1 cup diced tart apples (I usually use Granny Smiths)
1 cup diced onion (red onions are nice)
1 cup vinegar (white wine or apple cider)
3/4 - 1 cup sugar (brown or white or a mixture)
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, diced (fresh is also good - about 2 tablespoons grated)
1/4 cup dried fruit (raisins, currants, cranberries, blueberries, etc.)
Spice Bag:
1 cinnamon stick (about 4")
3 whole allspice
2 whole cloves
1 star anise (optional, but I happened to have one)

The Savory Version (my last batch had a Mexican Slant)
4 cups blueberries (2 pints works)
1 cup red currants or cranberries or diced tomatillos or diced apple (need something with some pectin)
1 cup diced onion
3/4 cup vinegar (red wine or apple cider)
1/4 cup lime juice (or use 1 cup vinegar total if you don't want the lime flavor)
Zest from a lime (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (brown or white or a mixture) or to taste
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, diced (fresh is also good - about 1 tablespoon grated)
1 or 2 chipotle peppers with adobo sauce
Spice Bag:
1/2 cinnamon stick (about 2")
1 tablespoon coriander seed (I toast the coriander and the cumin seed first)
1 teaspoon cumin seed (optional)
1 tablespoon mustard seed (or you can use 1 teaspoon of dry mustard powder)
4 black peppercorns

In a large pot, bring all the ingredients to a boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes until slightly thickened, stirring frequently. Process pints or half pints in a BWB for 10 minutes.

I usually leave out the chipotle pepper and add it when I puree the chutney for use as barbecue or a dipping sauce. I find it a bit more flexible that way.

Oh thanks malna! That Mexican slant sounds like a good jumping-off point for the Blue Chip(oltle) Preserves I made last year. I just have to go back to the Blueberry Lime recipe to figure out how many blueberries per jar (probably close to 1C since I didn't add other fruit or pectin). How many pints does this make? I may make 1/2 batch to see how I like it.

Thinking I can just add the onion, vinegar (we'll see about extra lime juice depending on how the preserves taste and how much lemon/lime I have in X jars compared to your recipe), spices (except for chipotle powder I already have in there). Not sure I'll need the apple/cranberry.

How thick is this when you whizz it up? About like ketchup? I don't know if I'll blend mine, depends on how whole the blueberries look after cooking a second time.

I get at least 4-1/2, sometimes up to 5-1/2 or 6 half pint jars. It depends on the other fruits I add. With fresh fruits I usually get a lesser amount. Using frozen fruits I get a bit more, even if I simmer them longer. I'm an inveterate tinkerer :-)

It's pretty thick after whizzing (especially when I use the red currants or tomatillos) - not quite as thick as ketchup, but it's thick enough to brush on and not run off. DH simmers it a bit, too, and it gets thicker in the heating process. He may add other spices or flavorings (some honey mustard, molasses, etc.) depending on the menu. He's an inveterate tinkerer, too.

We have tried using it without pureeing as a barbecue sauce, but we didn't like the way the whole fruits, especially the blueberries, cooked. Kinda dried out the bits of skin, which (we thought) wasn't appealing.

Hope that helps.

Thanks - we're having pork chops tonight, so I may open a jar, chop up an onion, and try it. I was thinking just cooking the onion in the vinegar and just heating the jam in that mixture, since the jam cooked quite a long time already. It won't be the same as canning it, but will give me an idea of the taste even though we'll be eating it as a relish more than a sauce tonight. Thanks again for the recipe.

Wow, thanks for the recipe. I'm not a very inventive cook, i wouldn't have really known what spices to put in. Here's what I did:

Minced 1/2C onion (white, not red b/c it's what I had), 1 unidentified sweet pepper about the size of a small bell, 1 jalapeno. Cooked until soft in 1/4C ACV. Added 1/8 tsp mustard seeds, 1/8tsp ground cumin and 1/8tsp ground coriander, stirred to distribute and simmered some more. Added half pint of Blue Chip Preserves, found it was really preserves even after a year, not thick, so threw in a handful of craisins. Cooked until dried fruit swelled, took off the heat, put in 12 oz jelly jar to cool in fridge b/c I made this right before dinner (was busy trying to get ridgepole on high tunnel this afternoon).

DH said it was OK (after I asked - this is his response to everything), DS said it was good (again I had to ask) and *I* thought it was "just right" - spicy without being "OMG where's the milk?!" hot as Annie would say.

Now I have to measure the peppers and see if I need more vinegar (using the NCHFP salsa acidification study for guidelines), I won't count the lemon and lime juice in the preserves.

And after we ate half of it, I realized I never put garlic in - but didn't miss it.

Thanks for these recipes. I hope to try some this year but I'm not sure. I had a family serious health issue come up. But I'll try and save this thread at the very least. I may not even get any salsa put up if the weather stays so darn cool here in the Midwest, like it is supposed to!