If you’ve just come home with a heavy bucket of free, wild blackberries after a weekend of foraging in the hedgerows, this recipe is for you. We are skipping the expensive commercial pectins and the specialized canning kits. Instead, we’re stripping things back to the beautiful, rustic basics: just fresh berries, sugar, and a little bit of patience.
In this post, we’re going to walk through how to make a luscious, deeply flavourful blackberry jam that stretches your grocery budget further. I’ll share my favourite money-saving tips—including how to safely sterilize jars you already have in your recycling bin and how to make your jam last all year in your pantry.
Get your spoons ready, because a jar of vibrant, sweet-tart blackberry jam is just a few simple steps away!
Ingredients to Make Blackberry Jam
- 3kg Blackberries
- 1.5kg Sugar
Total = £1.64
Makes 10 jars = 16p per jar
You can adjust the quantities to suit the amount of blackberries you have, you don’t need to pick a full 3 kg of blackberries.
Food purchased from Aldi. Prices correct at time of publishing.
Cooking Equipment You Will Need to Make Blackberry Jam
You do not need a lot of equipment to make your own jam. You can get started with tools you probably already have in your kitchen.
To make Blackberry Jam you will need:
- Large Pan
- Very Large Pan
- Jam Jars
- Weighing Scales
There are some tools that will make jam making quicker and easier.
A pair of jar lifters will make it much easier to remove your jars from the pan of boiling water. If you don’t have any you could remove the water with a jug or cup until you can reach the top of the jars. You’ll need something to protect your hands as the jar lids will be boiling hot. It’s a lot of phaff and jar lifters are not expensive so I would advise you to invest in a pair.
A jar funnel is also extremely useful for filling your jars. You could manage without one but the chances of making a huge mess are very high so this is another gadget that I would recommend you invest in if you plan on doing more home canning.
If you are making a small amount of jam you could store it in a plastic tub in your fridge. But if you want to preserve it you will need some jam jars.
You can use old jam jars. Make sure that they are absolutely scrupulously clean and that they don’t have any chips or cracks. Recycle any jars with the slightest defect or they could explode while canning – that’s not fun to clean up.
If you don’t have enough old jam jars to reuse you can buy them. Hobbycraft is the best price I have found in the UK.
A Note on Hot Water Bath Canning
Old fashioned British jam making is just making the jam and pouring it into a clean jar. The jar is sealed to keep out dirt and bacteria. The jam will last in the cupboard for a few months but it is very likley to go mouldy on the top. The mould needs to be scrapped off before the jam can be eaten. Are you grossed out yet? You can get waxed discs that help to limit the mould growth but still . . . gross. This method of persevering jam also relies on using a lot of sugar – like a really, really lot. Not the healthiest option.
Thankfully our friends over the pond have come up with some better method for preserving fruit.
Hot Water Bath canning is putting that jar in a bath of water and boiling it to kill most of the bacteria. Because some bacteria still survive the process this is only considered safe for high acid foods like jams, pickles and some tomato based recipes.
Pressure canning is the same thing but the bath is kept under pressure which effectively increases the temperature and kills more types of bacteria. This method is the only approved (by the FDA) method for preserving low acid foods such and vegetables, meat and dairy.
There’s a lot of miss-information on the internet. The American FDA has some quite strict recommendations and most of the reputable US information sources follow this guidance. Reputable British websites however ignore the issue completely and recommend the old fashioned method which the FDA considers to be highly unsafe. It’s confusing knowing which sources to trust.
Maybe if it was just me I’d risk it like many generations before me, but I couldn’t live with myself if I made my children ill from my cooking. It’s just not worth the risk for the few pennies I save.
So this Blackberry Jam recipe includes instructions for water bath canning your jam. This will make it last all year in your pantry without growing any mould.
If you plan to can your Blackberry Jam it’s best to start the hot water bath canner heating up before you make your jam.
Fill a large pan with enough hot water to completely cover your jam jars plus an inch or two. Bring the water up to the boil while you prepare your blackberry jam.
Blackberry Jam recipe
Wash your blackberries and remove any debris or “passengers” that have hitched a lift home with your haul.
Drain and weigh them.
Put the fruit and sugar into a stainless steel pan and bring it to the boil.
Once it’s reached a full rolling boil keep it boiling for 10 minutes.
If you prefer a smoother jam crush some or all of the blackberries as they cook. I like to leave most of them whole for a chunkier jam.
Ladle the jam into jars – I’m using old jam jars that I’ve thoroughly cleaned. I treated myself to a set of canning funnels to make this so much easier.
How to Hot Water Batch Can Blackberry Jam
Fill a large pan with hot water and bring it to the boil.
Give the rim of each jar a quick wipe with a damp cloth to remove any traces of Blackberry jam on the rim.
Pop the lids on, make them “finger tip tight”. This means putting the lids onto the jars but tightening them with the very tips of your fingers, putting virtually no strength into it. This allows the air to escape when you process the jars.
You need to put something at the bottom of your large pan of boiling water to stop the jars from resting on the bottom of the pan. You can use scrunched up pieces of tin foil or an old dish cloth. I actually use one of my plant mat coasters. Here’s the instructions on how to make them.
Gently lower your filled jars into the boiling water you prepared earlier. Make sure that the water is at least an inch (2.5cm) above the top of the jars.
I generally do a big batch of canning at the same time then I can use the same pan of boiling water without having to heat it up multiple times. This saves on the energy costs of canning.
Boil your jars of Blackberry Jam for 15 minutes.
At the end of the boiling time remove the jars and set them to one side to cool down.
If you have cold work tops such as marble you’ll need to put your jars on a tea towel to protect them from sudden changes in temperature. I’ve never had an issue cooling my jars on a wooden chopping block but be mindful of colder surfaces.
It’s best if you can leave your jars undisturbed for a few hours as they cool. Knocks and bumps can cause them to shatter, especially if you are re-using old jam jars.
You should hear your jars go “pop” as the lids seal.
How to Store Blackberry Jam
Once your jars of Blackberry Jam have cooled down check the lids. If you can depress the lids they haven’t sealed properly and these jars need to be eaten first. They will last for a good few weeks in the fridge just like any open jar of jam.
Most of your jars should have sealed and you will not be able to press the “button” in the centre of the lid. This means that all of the air has been forced out of the jar and the vacuum created has pulled the lid tightly down to make an airtight seal.
These jars can be stored at room temperature for about a year.
Check them every so often to make sure that the lids are still sealed.
Once you have opened a jar of Blackberry Jam you’ll need to store it in the fridge. It should keep for a few weeks, just like any other open jar of jam.
How to Serve Blackberry Jam
Oh wow, this jam is the best jam I’ve ever tasted. I left a jar in the fridge and baked a fresh loaf of bread for breakfast. The kids kept asking for more and more. I had to stop them from eating the whole jar so I could take the photos for this post.
I’ll definitely be making this again with next year’s blackberries.
I do hope that my Blackberry Jam recipe has inspired you to have a go at making your own jams.
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Pin this Blackberry Jam recipe to your Pinterest board so you can find it when you need a jam recipe for your foraged blackberries.
A Note on Food Safety
Freezing and defrosting food really isn’t complicated. But it terrifies me how many people aren’t familiar with basic food hygiene so if you’re new to cooking from scratch and freezing please follow these safety guidlines.
The important things to remember are:
- Wash your hands and anything else that has been in contact with raw meat.
- Meals should last for about 3 days in the fridge.
- Do not defrost your meals at room temperature.
- Do not refreeze meals you have already defrosted.
- Consume food before the use by date.
A Little Bit About Me . . .
Hey there I’m Bridie, a busy mum to two amazing humans, a spirited border collie puppy and a pair of sweet guinea pigs. We homestead in a cherished Edwardian terrace in not so sunny Lancashire, England.
When I’m not spending time with my children and menagerie, I’m usually to be found in my craft room creating and blogging or in the kitchen cooking up a big batch of something tasty. I’m always looking for thrifty hacks to save money on my crafts and recipes. Crafting doesn’t have to cost a fortune!
I have been batch cooking for about 30 years (yikes that makes me feel old!) I’m sharing all my batch cook recipes, in depth batch cooking tutorials and all my tips and tricks to help you slash your food bills.
Each week I cook up a big batch of a single meal. Most of it goes in the freezer, then it’s just defrost and reheat or sling it in the oven. Even on busy school nights my family get to enjoy healthy home cooked meals that my kids actually eat.
Each week I share a new recipe on my blog. Most of my meals cost less than £1 per portion.
I really hope that my ideas can help you to stretch your budget.
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