I was looking through the Ball Blue Book today to get a feel for how to make seedless blackberry jam, and in their recipe for berry jams, it mentions that you can make jams seedless by heating up the berries and either running the berries through a food mill or putting them through a sieve. That's easy enough. But the question I have is:
When it says to "measure pulp and proceed as above," does that mean that you need 9 cups of berry pulp, since the original non-seedless recipe calls for 9 cups of crushed berries? Or do you proceed with the pulp derived from 9 cups of crushed berries?
Hi Matti, I'm doing tons of blackberry at the moment, I can't help with the method you mention but I've put below the one I've used for a number of years now. I did use an exceedingly fine meshed sieve for the first time in my last batch of redcurrants to see if it was quicker / easier than straining through muslin and found it not much different and it hasn't clouded the jelly. I always squeeze the pulp and it never clouds, maybe I'm lucky 
A tip for blackberries I've found is to mix up the stages of ripeness, I use a small amount of berries that are just black, very sharp to eat but the bulk being on the point of going over, this gives an incredible good taste and the under ripe ones help with the acid / set. The success of good flavour is in the initial slow cooking which really draws and concentrates all the flavour into the juice. Yum!
Anyhow the method is from an old 1970's gardening book and works a treat, the jam this way is called jelly in the UK:
'As the pulp is discarded choose fruit with a strong flavour such as blackberries, damsons, redcurrants, quince or well flavoured crab apples. Some such as sloes, mulberries, cranberries, elderberries, bilberries, whortleberries etc. set better when mixed with apple.
Wash fruit, remove any unsound part but do not bother to stalk currants or peel or core apples. Cut up large fruit.
Put into a pan with 150ml (1/4 pint) water to 1/2kg (1lb) berries and upto 450ml (3/4 pint) for hard fruits.
Simmer slowly 3/4 - 1 hour until fruit is very soft. Test for pectin. If poor, cook further to evaporate excess water.
Strain the pulp through a jelly bag or butter muslin or calico. Do not squeeze bag as jelly will cloud.
If pectin test gave firm clot, recook the pulp with half original amount of water and strain.
Measure juice and return to pan and bring to boil.
Add 350-550g (3/4 - 1 1/4 lb) sugar to 600ml (1 pint) juice, adding most sugar to firm pectin clot.
Bring to rolling boil, time to a set is likely to be 10 - 15 mins.
Herb jellies - using apple or crabapple jelly as a basis, cook the fruit with sprigs of the herb, For a stronger flavour add the herb, chopped, just before setting point'
HTH
A tip for blackberries I've found is to mix up the stages of ripeness, I use a small amount of berries that are just black, very sharp to eat but the bulk being on the point of going over, this gives an incredible good taste and the under ripe ones help with the acid / set. The success of good flavour is in the initial slow cooking which really draws and concentrates all the flavour into the juice. Yum!
Anyhow the method is from an old 1970's gardening book and works a treat, the jam this way is called jelly in the UK:
'As the pulp is discarded choose fruit with a strong flavour such as blackberries, damsons, redcurrants, quince or well flavoured crab apples. Some such as sloes, mulberries, cranberries, elderberries, bilberries, whortleberries etc. set better when mixed with apple.
Wash fruit, remove any unsound part but do not bother to stalk currants or peel or core apples. Cut up large fruit.
Put into a pan with 150ml (1/4 pint) water to 1/2kg (1lb) berries and upto 450ml (3/4 pint) for hard fruits.
Simmer slowly 3/4 - 1 hour until fruit is very soft. Test for pectin. If poor, cook further to evaporate excess water.
Strain the pulp through a jelly bag or butter muslin or calico. Do not squeeze bag as jelly will cloud.
If pectin test gave firm clot, recook the pulp with half original amount of water and strain.
Measure juice and return to pan and bring to boil.
Add 350-550g (3/4 - 1 1/4 lb) sugar to 600ml (1 pint) juice, adding most sugar to firm pectin clot.
Bring to rolling boil, time to a set is likely to be 10 - 15 mins.
Herb jellies - using apple or crabapple jelly as a basis, cook the fruit with sprigs of the herb, For a stronger flavour add the herb, chopped, just before setting point'
HTH
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mattie g
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smoxi...thanks for the reply!
I ended up finding a recipe for seedless raspberry jam that called for 3 lbs of berries and 2 lbs of sugar. After pushing the mashed raspberries and blackberries (at about a 2:1 ratio) through a fairly fine strainer, I ended up with a bit over 2 lbs of puree, so the sugar-to-fruit ratio was basically 1:1 when all was said and done. I cooked the sugar and berries, along with about 1 tbsp of lemon juice, to 220F and tested it on a cold plate, which showed that it had come out just perfect! I did try to do the spoon sheet test before that, but I ignored the fact that it was likely to appear too runny simply because it lacked the bits of fruit that help to bind it together on the spoon. It made a total of 2 1/2 pints of jam, with a little left over for immediate eating.
I then made a batch of blueberry jam the next day - 6 cups of crushed berries to 4 cups of sugar and about 1.5 tbsp of lemon juice. Cooked to 218F (it didn't want to go any higher without cranking up the heat) and did a sheet test. Again...came out just as I wanted it! I ended with 3 pints, plus that little extra for eating fresh.
This was my first time trying to make jams, and - unless the jams somehow get screwy in the jars - they turned out absolutely fantastic!
I ended up finding a recipe for seedless raspberry jam that called for 3 lbs of berries and 2 lbs of sugar. After pushing the mashed raspberries and blackberries (at about a 2:1 ratio) through a fairly fine strainer, I ended up with a bit over 2 lbs of puree, so the sugar-to-fruit ratio was basically 1:1 when all was said and done. I cooked the sugar and berries, along with about 1 tbsp of lemon juice, to 220F and tested it on a cold plate, which showed that it had come out just perfect! I did try to do the spoon sheet test before that, but I ignored the fact that it was likely to appear too runny simply because it lacked the bits of fruit that help to bind it together on the spoon. It made a total of 2 1/2 pints of jam, with a little left over for immediate eating.
I then made a batch of blueberry jam the next day - 6 cups of crushed berries to 4 cups of sugar and about 1.5 tbsp of lemon juice. Cooked to 218F (it didn't want to go any higher without cranking up the heat) and did a sheet test. Again...came out just as I wanted it! I ended with 3 pints, plus that little extra for eating fresh.
This was my first time trying to make jams, and - unless the jams somehow get screwy in the jars - they turned out absolutely fantastic!
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applestar
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- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I decided to harvest the Elderberries this year and make some jelly. Made some test batch with 2 cups of berries last night and used store bought Polish raspberry syrup for 1/2 of the water and tossed in 1/2 dozen European plums from the garden that had some bad parts cut off so needed to go in a cooked recipe. Honey and a splash of red wine vinegar, no/low sugar pectin. Food milled with smallest hole disk to get most of the seeds, skin, etc. out. Yielded two 1/3 cup and two 1/2 cup jelly jars.
Doing it this way with small hole food mill disk, there was a little bit of the smallest seeds that got through, but it was easy to do and the seeds didn't detract from the texture of the (well is this still jelly or is it jam?)
Saved the seedy skin jam left in the food mill and, this morning, added to banana-squash bread recipe to sub for berries and nuts. Squash was baseball sized immature Uncle David's Dessert Dakota squash. So sweet even though the seeds are clearly immature, so I julienned, skin and seed cavities and all.
The resulting joint effort batter was baked into 18 muffins instead of a loaf per DD's request.
Oh yum yum! Especially with the nicely set Elderberry-Raspberry jelly.
Doing it this way with small hole food mill disk, there was a little bit of the smallest seeds that got through, but it was easy to do and the seeds didn't detract from the texture of the (well is this still jelly or is it jam?)
Saved the seedy skin jam left in the food mill and, this morning, added to banana-squash bread recipe to sub for berries and nuts. Squash was baseball sized immature Uncle David's Dessert Dakota squash. So sweet even though the seeds are clearly immature, so I julienned, skin and seed cavities and all.
The resulting joint effort batter was baked into 18 muffins instead of a loaf per DD's request.
Oh yum yum! Especially with the nicely set Elderberry-Raspberry jelly.