1. If you've never done home canning you may want to take a short self-study coarse at the National Center for Home Food Preservation. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/index.html

2. You may find this refrigerator/freezer jam recipe an easy one to get you started, although it's not exactly what you are looking for: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_07/uncooked_berry_jam_powder.html

3. If you have a Cooperative Extension Office in your county, give them a visit for more information.

4. Get a copy of the Ball Blue Book of Home Canning (usually available with canning equipment in stores). Read the first part of the book so you will understand the canning "lingo" and procedures. Things such as headspace: Headspace is the space in the jar between the top of the food or liquid and the inside of the lid. It's important to follow the directions for the suggested amount of headspace. The recipe for Berry Preserves is an easy one that uses 2-pounds of berries and 4-cups of sugar to make 4-half pints.

Good luck....
-Grainlady

Gene...get an old cook book...
There's not a lot of danger in preserving fruit....it won't grow botulism and kill you....it may grow mold if you don't boil every thing....but that's easy to see....and while it's a shame to toss out a jar of good stuff, it very very seldom happens.

Pretty much you wash and measure your fruit...mash a little in the bottom of the cooking pot....add an amount of sugar equal to the quantity of fruit, simmer for about 45 minutes and pour into jars that have been boiled for 15 minutes, remove from the hot water with tongs and set on a towel....cover with melted parrafin.
Of course be careful not to get the melting parrafin on fire....just as you would be careful not to set fat on fire when frying. If you use a jar with a lid....canning jars, boil the lids for 3 or 5 minutes and place on the jars while they are hot and they will seal.
Don't try this method with green beans or beets though! this is just for high acid and high sugar things.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: Jams and jellys the old way.

I agree, jam/jelly/preserves are one of the safest things you can preserve. If they mold, toss 'em out, otherwise you're pretty good to go.

Jelly is, of course, made with juice, not crushed or chopped fruit. Jam is crushed/mashed/chopped fruit. Preserves are the whole fruit or pieces of fruit suspended in a thick syrup. To add to the fun, conserves are a mixture of fruits and can have other ingredients like nuts or coconut.

Truthfully, the easiest way to make blackberry jam is to get a box of Surejell and follow the instructions. If you want to make preserves, tht's something else and you'll have to find a recipe and cook it for a longer period of time. My favorite preserve recipe came from Carol/Readinglady and calls for macerating the fruit, then a short cook, let it sit, remove the fruit, thicken the syrup, add the fruit back in and jar it up. Far more work and time involved than the 10 minute SureJelly jam recipe, that's for sure, but so worth it to me. There is also much more possibility for error in the preserves than pectin added jam.

My nephew won a blue ribbon at the County fair several years ago for Root Beer Jelly and he was 12 or 13, so if a kid can do it, you can do it, go for it!

Annie

I completely agree with Annie about buying the SureJell and going by the directions on it. It's very simple and easy.

In the future if you decide to can or make other jams and jellies, the Ball Blue book mentioned by Grainlady is invaluable. Also, there are a few things that are just better slowly cooked down by themselves than made with SureJell. Pear preserves come to mind.

I imagine you already know this, but one thing that distinguishes jelly from preserves and jam is the lack of seeds. You would have to get all of those blackberry seeds out for it to become jelly.

Good luck with your blackberries. They are a favorite here for both jams and cobblers.

Beverly

The reason there may be some "mixing" involved is because blackberries are low in pectin. So you need to either use commercial pectin (in which case follow the recipes that come in the box with the pectin) or use the "old fashioned" method (which involves macerating the fruit in a sugar syrup overnight to flavor it, then taking the berries out so you don't cook them to death, and reducing the sugar syrup and then adding the berries back in. The reason this method is a bit tricky, is you don't want to cook the sugar syrup too long, otherwise it gets a caramel flavor that competes with the fruit. But cook it too short and the preserves don't jell that much. They are great as a sauce at that point though. Another thing to do is mix blackberries which are low pectin, with a fruit that is high in pectin, like apples, or currants or plums or raspberries or concord grapes (with skin). I have seen recipes for apple blackberry preserves, which is about the easiest. I don't like the seeds, nor do I like to fuss with a food mill, so I almost always mix my blackberries with something else for jam. I only make strawberry preserves. The other fruits are just too much bother for me.! And my strawberry preserves are not exactly blue ribbon either, lol.!

If you want jelly with fruit in it....add the Sure Jell or Certo....if you want preserves...thick cooked fruit with a little syrup around the edge....just put fruit and sugar together and cook.
I suggest you don't over think the process....just put fruit and an equal quantity of sugar together and simmer until it's as thick as you want.....about 30 to 50 minutes.
Try 3 cups of fruit and 3 cups of sugar when the berries come on....see if you like it.

Found this in a old canning book. Tried to find date but there isn't one to be found..sounds about the same as others here have mentioned.

Jams are made of crushed fruits, mixed with sugar and boiled rapidly until thick.

BERRY JAM
Wash and pick over berries. Crush and measure berries and juice. Heat through. Add 3/4 cup sugar to each cup berries and juice. Cook, stirring frequently, until thick. Pour into your sterilized jars to withing 1/4" of top. put on cap and screww firmly tight. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
Preserves are when fruits are combined with an equal amount or 3/4 as much sugar as fruit and cooked until the syrup is quite thick and the fruit transparent and plump, the finished product is a preserve.

Howdy. I appreciate everyone's replies. I've saved them all. You can bet they'll be reread and reread.

I guess my initial comment and/or subject line was somewhat misleading and I'm sorry. I only want to try making blackberry preserves. I tend to miss things and you've probably already told me how.

I might be picturing preserves wrong. I see them as about half syrupy filled with whole and/or lightly crushed blackberries. I'd like that the preserves be solidified only enough that it will hold on to my warm buttered biscuit long enough that I can eat it before it falls on my nice clean shirt (G).

It seems I'm trying to have the best of both worlds and can't have it that way. It seems making these preserves might be okay to store for a short term. But, it doesn't sounds like it would stand up for fairly long term canning. You've given me encouragement and I really do appreciate it. Thanks, Gene

Do it the way I said and it will keep easily for a year...

My cleaning lady brought me frozen blackberries from Ohio last fall. When the painting is done (should be done next week--started 3 weeks ago and it isn't a big home!), I'm going to make jelly. The berries are crushed so I don't think I have a choice. It should taste good!

Gene, you can make blackberry preserves that will hold up to long term canning and still be the traditional "whole berries in syrup". As I mentioned, Carol's old fashioned preserve recipe calls for macerating the fruit, then removing the fruit, bringing the syrup to jell point or slightly below, then adding the berries back in. After tht you could waterbatch process for 10 minutes as required by the government guidelines and They would keep at least a year. they'll safely keep longer, but at some point your quality will begin to deteriorate.

So, how to do it? This is what I'd do:

Blackberry Preserves

2 lbs blackberries
4 cups sugar
4 tsp of lemon juice (actually, I'd use two whole lemons, squeeze the juice into the pot and then wrap the peel/pit/seeds in a square of cheesecloth and add that to the pot. It's a trick I learned from Readinglady and adds pectin to the mix because blackberries are a fruit that aren't terribly high in pectin)

Combine berries and sugar and let set for four hours. Bring to simmer point. Add lemon juice, cheesecloth bundle of lemon "stuff", if using, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Cover and let stand overnight. The next day, remove the berries from the syrup and bring the syrup to a boil, cook until it reaches a soft jell stage. That's about 218-220 on my thermometer, but I test by dabbing a bit on a frozen plate and sticking it back in the freezer for a minute. If it sets up, it's done. Be careful not to overcook the stuff in the pan while you're testing, or you'll get taffy! When the syrup is cooked to the desired thickness, add the berries back in and heat through, then ladle into jars, top with a lid and ring and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Yes, it takes a couple of days, instead of a couple of minutes, but you don't have to spend all your time stirring or messing, it's mostly "set" time. You do have to time it right so you can deal with it when it's ready. And it is SOOOOOO worth it. You could probably double this recipe and still be OK, but if you make a batch too big it doesn't heat quickly enough to jelly nicely, so I probably wouldn't go too much past double.

Good luck.

Annie

I make old fashioned "preserves" Annie's way. And worst comes to worst, if it's a little too runny, then you have awesome blackberry syrup for yogurt, pancakes and waffles. Can't wait for berry season!!

OK, forgot to tell you to remove the bag of lemon "stuff" after you boil the syrup, and efore adding the berries back in. But you knew that.....

L, I can hardly wait either, I know that we should be getting strawberries in a month or so but it's 40F and rining and seems a lot too cold still....

Annie

You'll increase the pectin if you use 25% slightly underripe berries. The riper the berries the lower the pectin.

Follow the directions Annie provided and you'll have perfect preserves. They'll hold up just fine to canning. The berries won't disintegrate (at least no more than they have already - with blackberries some of that is inevitable). There's heat penetration but it isn't the same effect as cooking the berries in the kettle.

If you want to reduce floating and get more berries suspended in the syrup, allow the finished preserves to rest off the heat for 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times, and then put the preserves in the jars. That helps distribute the weight. They'll still be plenty warm enough.

You could skip the canning, but there is a risk of mold and who wants to waste all that effort?

And if you're so inclined, a tablespoon or two of Grand Marnier or a vanilla stick wouldn't go amiss.

Carol

Sorry, I meant vanilla bean or cinnamon stick.

Carol

I have been making jams and jellies for years and years using the sterile jar, cover quickly with parafin method. Only on one batch did I have some mold.....and that was lots of years ago and it was plum jam and I had put a cinnamon stick and a few cloves in some of the jars and the mold formed around the cinnamon stick.
I have 6 or 8 jars of crabapple jelly in the basement now....as clear and as lovely as they were when I sealed them with wax in the fall of 2009.
I have been making preserves and jams and jellies like this since easily 1960 and only had maybe 3 jars mold....that plum stuff!
Usually I manage to use it up or give it away during a year and so start fresh....but sometimes I go hog wild on something that is in season and it lasts.
A couple of years ago, I found some jelly hidden on a shelf that had to be more than 10 years old. It was dark and I no longer remember what kind it was, but it was just poured into a jelly glass, not a canning jar, sealed with parafin and stacked on a shelf. There was no mold....I wasn't about to eat it...but I did open and wash the jars to reuse....but the jam or jelly wasn't moldy.
Keep your glasses or jars sterile, cover quickly with a thin layer of wax....and when that has hardened add another layer and you won't have mold problems. And it's so easy!
AGAIN.....this is for high sugar fruits....not for pickles nor canned vegetables.

LindaC, you and I have had this discussion before, LOL. It's easy for YOU. For me, not so easy. I get bubbles, and I set the pan of wax on fire once, I usually burn myself. I nearly always get a leak and then the jam molds. It's just something I never got the hang of, plus I ruined a pan, you'll never get the wax out.

So, if you've been doing it for 50 years, it's probably easy, but if you've never done it, it's not nearly as easy as slapping a hot lid on a hot jar and dunking it into the canner for 10 minutes. Grandma used paraffin when I was very small but she switched to lids and rings, saying that it was more "consistent". I think she kept lids for other things and just didn't want to bother with both!

Now, jam and preserves are one of the easiest and safest things a person can preserve and I wouldn't hesitate to eat your crabapple jelly with the paraffin, but I'm sure not going to do it myself and I don't tell anyone else to do it because it's such a PIA for me.

Annie

You'd probably get a similar effect to the paraffin by pouring the hot preserve into the hot jars and slapping a two-piece lid and ring on without even bothering with a boiling water bath.

The lid will form a weak seal and the preserve will likely keep well enough for use within six months, unless it's low-sugar.

I'm not recommending it; I do water bath my fruit preserves, but it seems an easier option for someone with no experience dealing with paraffin. There are no food safety issues barring mold, which obviously is easily discernable.

Personally, the only advantage of paraffin I can see is if you wish to use non-standard containers. Assuming they were heatproof, you could gift in some very pretty cups and jars which don't accomodate canning lids.

However, knowing me, I'd end up scraping wax off the floor (or scalding my feet), so I avoid it. In my family the demise of the paraffin method was cause for celebration.

Carol

Thank you all for sharing this trick. I too want to find this out.

Carol, I agree, you can put jams and jellies into really pretty containers for gifting if you use paraffin. I once considered making champagne jelly for Christmas gifts and putting it in champagne glasses from GoodWill. Never happened, though, LOL

The other issue is cost. I don't know about anywhere else, but an 8 ounce block of paraffin at my local hardware store is $4.99, and a dozen lids are only $1.79. Because I can dozens of jars of jams and jellies, I'd need a lot of paraffin, plus extra to ignite, LOL.

Oh, and I always get little "shards" of wax in my jam when I try to remove the wax from the top of the jar.

I'd still eat LindaC's jelly without blinking, though....

Annie

Annie...it that a hint? LOL!!

I used to buy boxes of this'n that at auctions to put jelly and jam in for gifts...stemmed wine glasses, cute coffee mugs. One time I bought a bunch of glass Christmas mugs....and put pepper jelly in them made with red and green peppers. It was really pretty, with a little pinked circle of Christmas fabric tied on.
Wax is not that expensive at Wally World, but I put a lid AND wax on my jams and jelly. Overkill I know but that way I can stack the jars.

I used to make candles, so I am acquainted with how NOT to melt wax. Somewhere in the basement there is a box with a 10 pound block fo paraffin...not food grade...but none the less wax to be melted and poured.

And I keep a dedicated paraffin melting pan....but I don't do like my grandmother did and wash and save the wax.
But it really is easy.....
Linda C

LindaC, I remember that you sent me a jar. I happily consumed it too. I know the "government" doesn't approve of the use of paraffin, but it's one of my pet peeves with them. They often say they "do not recommend" something, but don't differentiate between a quality issue and a safety issue. Paraffin is not unsafe, it's considered a "quality issue", much like canning rutabaga. It's "not recommended" because rutabaga can get strong when it's canned. I don't happen to mind that, so I can it, but the guidelines removed rutabaga and turnip from their instructions and stated that it was not recommended. So many people complained that now the instructions are back, with a notation that the vegetables will may develop a strong flavor when canned. Well, let ME decide if that matters to me, sheesh, don't just tell me not to do it because someone else might not like it.

OK, done with that rant. Now, what you need to do, I think, is perfect a way to imbed a loop into the wax disk on top, so you can just pull the loop and remove the wax. (grin)

In the meantime, I'll just keep on using lids and rings. If I waterbath them for 10 minutes, I don't even have to sterilize them first, so that saves a step too. for me it's faster, easier, cheaper and less messy. Also less of a fire hazard!

Annie

And before there was parafin, previous generations covered the jam with a layer of rendered animal fat! Of course I also think they often made dried out fruit preserves, (like fruit leather) and rehydrated them as needed.