I remember being instructed to *never* squeeze grapes [berries, apples, etc] when making jelly for show-off or gifts; squeezed juice will result in cloudy jelly. (The teacher held numerous prizes for her jellies.) To this day, I make the first batch by mashing the fruit and letting it drip overnight, if no cheesecloth then use two or three layers of fabric from men's undershirts; do dampen with purified or distilled water. After that has dripped, use to make the pretty jelly ~ no 'cloud' and a very pure flavor. Then I add a bit more fruit to the fruit that dripped, along with a cup or two of distilled water, stir thoroughly, and then squeeze/twist- until there is just dryish pulp. The juice from the second time is strained through a fresh bag and then used for jelly or syrup. It is sometimes cloudy from the minute particles, but the flavor is great. An old cookbook advised using the grape pulp left (after dripping for jelly) to make grape jam or a pie filling. I did try in a pie, and it tastes just fine; run the pulp through a chinois or strainer to remove the seeds, add a bit less water than looks right for a thick filling. I've used the chinois, and the jelly is usually cloudy but free of seeds. I actually find drip-squeeze in a cloth bag faster and easier on the wrists. If you have a Squeezo or Victorio, check to see if they have a fine-berry screen. Some brands do, and that is absolutely the easiest and fastest way to get seed-free juice. I've seen food mills with fine strainers, but I don't have first-hand experience with blueberries in one.

kriswrite - you need to boil a lot of the water out of it. It does take a long time. IIRC, I would boil the peels and pits for 3 hours or so. And then it would be another hour or 2 before it would become syrup consistency. I would keep it on more of a low simmer at the beginning of the boiling process - so I could be doing other things. And then when it started getting close, I would turn it up to a full rolling boil and keep my eye on it. if you don't want to use a thermometer, you can test it similar to testing jam - put a bit on a frozen plate and check for thickness that way - you'll never be able to judge thickness when it is hot.

This is what we managed to pick. About ten pounds of wild blackberries and cultivated blueberries from the neighbor's bushes. It became seedless blackberry jam, blueberry and blackberry jam, blueberry lime jam, two blueberry pies, and the kids ate a bunch.

This is a fantastic topping that might be just what Lexilani was originally looking for. It's perfect to go on top of cheesecake. I did find that my second batch was thinner than my first. To up the natural pectin, you could include the lemon seeds in a mesh bag during the simmer and remove them before canning. Look up the jell tests (put some on a plate in the freezer, check whether it sheets when running off a spoon, cook to 218° F) if you need help checking the set. You can use all blueberries and leave out the mango if you can figure out the yield (in cups) of 2 mangos so you have the same total volume of fruit. Melissa Blueberry-Mango-Frangelico Topping 2 mangos, peeled & diced 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen) 1 cup sugar 1 cup water 2 tbsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. grated lemon rind 2 tbsp. Franjelico Combine all ingredients (except liqueur) in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes or until liquid has thickened. Stir in Frangelico and cook for 5 more minutes. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. BWB for 10 minutes for half-pints and 15 minutes for pints. This made a little over 2 pints for me. I've used lime instead of lemon...and peaches instead of mangos and both variations also taste good :-) I believe this came from Topp & Howard's 'Small Batch Preserving.' SuzyQ2