I had leftover raspberries from when I made the raspberry chocolate sauce the other day, and not being one to let good produce go to waste, I decided to make a small batch of plain raspberry jam. I’ve never been a fan of using pectin in my jams as I think they get too “stiff” and thick for my tastes. So, I dug out my old Ball Blue Book, and found an old-fashioned berry recipe that just has crushed berries and sugar. That’s it. Easy peasy. Yes, it is more cooking and stirring, but I can control the texture of the jam better – at least I think so. The recipe is very versatile as you can use almost any kind of berry: blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, dewberry, gooseberry, loganberry, and raspberry.

I didn’t have enough crushed berries as what the recipe called for, so I made a smaller batch, which is fine if you only have a few cups of berries. You just need to decrease the amount of sugar in proportion to how many berries you have. This is one time I actually used some of the math I learned back in 7th grade (thanks Mr. Blair!). I had 3-1/2 cups of crushed raspberries, so I only used 2-1/3 cups of sugar. I ended up with 3 half-pints plus one 4-ounce jar of jam.

Old-Fashioned Raspberry Jam

9 cups crushed berries (measure after you’ve crushed the berries)

6 cups sugar

Combine berries and sugar in a large sauce pot. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Cook rapidly to jellying point. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Pour hot into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Adjust caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Yield: About 3 pints

Note: If seedless jam is preferred, crushed berries may be heated until soft and pressed through a sieve or food mill; then add sugar and proceed as above.

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