More than Nothing: Blackberries
Every summer I go on a blackberry bender; picking, cleaning and cooking up as much of the tasty morsels as I can. Usually I make jelly and syrup because I can't stand the seeds, but this year I found out I can also make jam after straining the seeds out.
It's still a lot of work, but WAY less than jelly. For a good jelly the fruit must be strained twice through like three layers of cheesecloth. It takes literally days, during which time the kitchen is taken up with various pots and collanders dripping berry juice ever so slowly.
Plus to make jelly you need pectin, which I don't like to use (because you have to add even more sugar). So I use either the quince from my tree, if it has any which it didn't this year, or under-ripe apples which I pick from a couple of trees down my street. I cook the apples separately, they also need to be properly strained, then - once the berry juice is ready to go - add the apple gunk as pectin and cross my fingers.
Often I get a couple of jars of jelly, then the rest comes out as syrup because it just doesn't set up (not enough sugar probably). That's OK though, the syrup is just as tasty and has many uses, even to slop all over some toast once the jelly runs out.
This year I checked a different cookbook and found I can indeed make jam, just put it through a strainer to get rid of the seeds. A three-day operation turned into one afternoon (not counting the berry picking which takes a few hours and a LOT of scratches plus some bug bites).
Gaze upon the loveliness:
you know you want it
freshly picked
the messy and unpleasant chore of straining
straining out the seeds
mmm, sweet delicious, ready for cooking
delicious ready to cook
gunk that was removed
yucky seeds
mmm, finished!
lovely jam finished
The jars are now in my fridge and after the second day set up quite well. Still a wee bit runny, because I use way less sugar than I'm supposed to, but I don't mind that. Yum yum, well worth the Sunday afternoon's effort!