Jam Without Pectin or Sugar

With school and work I've found it really difficult to make jam this year. Generally I start canning in June with strawberries, but this year had to forego due to my semi insane schedule. However, I was able to grab the tail end of the raspberry season and make enough jam for the year plus a few more for trading and gifts.

As many of you know I am pretty careful about what I put in the food I make and try to use products that are not processed and non organic, this is true for my canning as well. I do not use process sugar (I occasionally will use organic sugar, date sugar, coconut sugar, etc) and I absolutely do not use pectin (the processed gelatin powder made from the hoofs of animals, or the chemically created kind). The bottom line is you do not need sugar OR pectin to make your jam thick, the secret to jam is simply heat and time.

 On that note, I wanted to share my jam making with you so you could try it for yourself! You will notice that by cooking down your jam without sugar or pectin the taste of the fruit really stands out. If you want a weaker taste or a thinner jam, just alter the cooking time.

Raspberry Jam Ingredients:
- Raspberries
- Honey (or whatever sweetener you want to use)

I made 2 flats worth of raspberries which is roughly 20 pint sized jam jars. The ratio of sweetener to berries is really whatever you wish it to be, though I was using 1:1 (1 cup Blended Raspberry to 1 cup honey).

Here is one of the flats, purchased from the local farmers market - its the end of the season, act fast if you want to give this a go.

My first step is set-up, I wash all of my rims and tops in warm soapy water and sanitize my jars, this is done by boiling them in hot water for 10 minutes.

Next I start working on the raspberries in batches. When you have a lot it is much easier to break it down into quarters, so I mix 4 lbs of berries which reduce down to 4 cups in the blender, then add my sweetener.

You don't have to have a blender, you can mash your raspberries with a potato masher and add the sweetener of your choice when it has been mashed to a fairly smooth liquid.

The above picture is 4 lbs of blended berries with 4 cups of honey (you can use more or less, I add my sweetener when the berries have been blended and taste as I go. Remember, the berry flavor will intensify as you cook it down. From this point I use a soup ladle and pour 4 and 1/2 ladle fulls into a pot, this gives me a 1 pint jar with about 1/4 inch of head room.

The jam is cooked on medium low and once it starts to boil you must be present to stir it regularly. If you want to speed up the process, you can have multiple pots going at once, but please do yourself a favor and stagger them by 5 to 7 minutes. This means that as one jar is finishing the other will need your attention to keep from burning at the bottom before you pour it into the jam jar. Average cook time per jar is 15 to 20 minutes, you will know it is done when you can draw a line through the middle without it immediately filling in. Generally if I can say "One Mississippi" before it fills in, it is done.

When your jar is full, immediately cap it and tighten the lid. When all jars are finished you will want to process them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Wipe off and store, these will last a year + in your cupboard.

Enjoy!!