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Blueberries have been berry berry bad to me

15 years ago

Sorry, I just had to quote one of my favorite SNL characters, Garrett Morris. You remember the 1975-1976 Weekend Update routine rightÂ Base-a-ball has been very very good to me? OMG, am I that old??? LOL

I have finally gotten around to preserving local blueberries purchased last summer and frozen and IÂve managed to mess up both my low sugar jam and pie filling.

I overshot the jelling point for the jam. After processing I ended up with something closer to cement glue than jam (it canÂt be spread). Would anyone have suggestions on how to salvage it?

Undaunted by my jam experience I moved on to the pie filling following the Bernardin recipe with one exception, I cut back on the Clearjel by half as others have suggested. It turned out great except my yield was about half of what the recipe suggested it should be. I pre-measured the 7 cups of blueberries called for before freezing using my FoodSaver. Could the freezing resulted in less volume? Any ideas on how I messed up and any guidance on use and measurement of frozen berries?

Thanks,

Bill

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Comments (4)

brendan_of_bonsai
15 years ago
Slice the jam up in to cubes, dip it in some nice milk chocolate, and enjoy.
ksrogers
15 years ago
The jelly can be softened. I had some quite stiff blueberry and added some honey and a dash of water, then placed in the microwave about 45 seconds. Just enough to get it a little softer. Now that is done, the jelly is more like a spreadable syrup. The blues can be different sizes and once frozen will lose some of the water as ice. Keep in mind a cup of big cultivated blueberries will cook down to less than a cup, compared to a cup of small wild blueberries. Its the same with Kosher salt vs. canning salt. The bigger the particle size, the less there will be if measured in a cup. A weight would be more accurate.
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User
Original Author
15 years ago
Brendan and Ken,

Thanks for the suggestions! IÂll turn some of the batch into blueberry chocolates and the rest IÂll try to soften up as per KenÂs suggestion.

Bill
ksrogers
15 years ago
Mine worked ou great. I do notice that if I use dried blueberries they tend to remain quite firm even after cooking and canning. The actually were still whole berries when I thinned out the preserves a little. It goes great on waffles!

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