Earlier this Summer, I picked fourteen pounds of blackberries and returned home and split evenly between three freezer bags. Originally it was my thought to can the fruit, but decided to do something different since I have peaches and strawberries in the freezer as well.

I participated in the Free Range discussion yesterday afternoon on the Washington Post and the suggestion that came back was to use some of the fruit to make a blackberry sauce. The suggestion was to add one Tb of brandy and one Tb of orange juice.

Using this recipe, is is possible to can and then give out later in the year as gifts, etc...? If yes, is there anything that you would change to make the sauce more than just ordaniry? And lastly, should I cook the liquid mixture down until it thickens up a bit instead of being runny?

Thank you.

The way I do it is to run the berries through the food processer to make a puree and then to press the puree through a fairly fine sieve, using a spatula. The one thing I don't like about blackberries (and raspberries too for that matter) is all the seeds. Running the puree through the sieve gets rid of all the seeds. I then heat the resulting juice with some sugar (my theory is that the sugar acts as a preserative as well as a sweetner). I then put the stuff in plastic containers and freeze. It tastes like liquid summertime when I bring it out in the middle of winter and put it on vanilla ice cream. It also is good for making a blackberry/port reduction for use on roast pork.

Local blackberries taste much better cooked than raw, IMO. I have had amazingly sweet, wild blackberries in Oregon, but most of the cultivated blackberries I have tasted locally have a slightly green, vegetal quality and aren't sweet enough to eat without sugar.

Blackberry preserves are just about my favorite. I haven't made them in the past couple of years, because my family prefers sour cherry, so I have concentrated my efforts there--I have about 3 dozen pint and 1/2 pint jars of sour cherry preserves, which took about 35 pounds of cherries to make. I am totally with JG about seeds--I always puree and strain out all the seeds before doing anything further with blackberries. If you puree and strain blackberries, you basically have slightly pulpy juice. If you add sugar (recommended), brandy or any other flavor (I don't get orange juice at all--a little lemon juice to brighten the flavor, but orange would just distract from the blackberry, which is what I would want to taste), you have blackberry syrup, essentially. There is some pulp in the berries, but you do lose a bit of the pulp when you strain out the seeds, so it is going to be thin. If you reduce it enough so that it becomes thick--I think you will degrade the flavor significantly. You want to cook the berries, but only until the raw taste is gone--I don't like most jams made without pectin for that reason. By the time the fruit has cooked long and hard enough to thicken, much of the flavor has boiled out. If you want to make a dessert sauce that has some body to it, you'll need to add some starch. You want one that is not going to make the sauce cloudy--arrowroot, corn starch or tapioca starch.

You'll then need to pressure can your product.

Why not make jam instead?

JG's theory about sugar as a preservative is correct. I think the ratio is 1 lb. of berries to 1 lb. of sugar, but I would verify that. You can skip adding any pectin and you will create a sauce as you want. Add whatever flavors you like, cook, then can. After that you can use as gifts.

Sometimes I don't bother seeding, but it is up to you.

It was my thought to use some of the berries to make a jam, but have a little stage fright. When you were making jam with your cherries, did you follow the ratio of one pound of fruit to one pound of sugar? And, how did you determine how much pectin to add?

In addition to the blackberries, I have twenty-seven pounds of cut peaches in my freezer. And, about four pounds of cut strawberries.

Does the same ratio of fruit to sugar apply to peaches and strawberries as well?

Thank you.

I went to the library and took out a book on canning to get the recipes. As for the pectin, there are instructions on (or in) the box that you buy.

One other thing, wear clothes you would paint in and be careful. Blackberry juice stains.

Is it worth trying to combine flavors such as blackberry and lavendor, etc... to make the end result a little more unique?

Sure, you can always make some small test batches to see what you like. Would lavender be too subtle an addition?

The combination of Drambuie and blackberries, which I had recently, was awesome (so should you happen to have some in your liquor cabinet...).

I have a respectible sized pepper garden on my back porch and am starting to think that a peach habanero might be a good flavor, although I think that a jalapeno might better do the trick.

Do you think that adding either a habanero or jalapeno pepper to the blackberries will add complexity to the flavor, or just be too different in flavor combinations?

I follow the instructions in the pectin package as far as ratio of fruit to sugar is concerned--it's usually about 5 cups of fruit to 7 cups of sugar and one package of pectin per batch, depending on how sweet or tart the fruit is. Don't try to make double batches to save time. It doesn't work.

Making preserves is not difficult, if you follow directions closely. Boil jars and lids for ten minutes or more to sterilize, along with a canning funnel, a ladle and a good pair of tongs to get your jars out of the sterilizing pot. Remove the sterile lids and jars and turn them upside down on a towel next to your stove. Meanwhile, start cooking your prepared fruit with the pectin until it boils and add all of the pre-measured sugar and when it has come to a rolling boil, stir vigorously for one full minute. Turn off the heat, skim off the foam, and ladle the hot liquid into one jar at a time, using the funnel. Immediately put the lid and ring on the jar, tighten it and turn the jar upside down, then do the next jar. When you have finished with all of the jam, turn the jars right side up and let them stand until they are cool. You will hear a pinging sound, which is the lid cntracting as the vacuum seal takes place. I do not process jam further in a water bath. As long as the jars were sterilized and the hot liquid was put into the jars quickly, and the lid has sealed they will not spoil, even if kept at room temperature for years.

I made peach preserves with lavender-infused brandy, which was tasty, but didn't have enough lavender flavor. It was a good combination, however.

I have had a commercially made raspberry-chipotle sauce, which was great. So I think fruit and chiles are an interesting combination. I'd pack it in small jars, though. A little goes a long way.

I did this, too, until I discovered that heating them in a sauce pan with a little bit of water broke the things down enough to strain them. Plus, the results were "clearer." And, I didn't have to clean the food processor. I wouldn't make a berry sauce any other way. (Jacques Pepin had a tip about this: use the back of a soup ladle to strain the berries. It is much faster and easier than using a spatula. I've tried this trick on many occasions and discovered that St. Jacques is right, as usual!)

Blackberry Loss

2 handheld nuts
12 ½ cups of wireless dates (greased)
1 large firm banana (peeled)
1 blue tooth
1½ c rum
½ t. vanilla extract
4 lbs. blackberries
½ c. stick sweet butter
1 t. palm pilot oil
½ c. cornstarch
1 c. extra fine grain sugar
2 out-of-office-auto-replies
4 fluffy pillows

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