We have a blackberry and blueberry U-pick farm close by. (In the off season, it’s a Christmas tree farm.) It’s always well maintained and the staff is helpful. And they have some of the biggest berries ever. 
It’s been a few years since I picked there so one morning I got up early. By 7:30 A.M. I had already picked six quarts. I came home and started planning. 
I can’t just make plain jam and I remembered I had bookmarked some preserve recipes in Jam Session by Joyce Goldstein. It’s the Kindle version so I don’t utilize this cookbook very often. “Blackberry, Burgundy Plum, Mint, and Black Pepper Jam” had been bookmarked at some point. Because I didn’t have burgundy plums and I wanted to use pectin, I adapted the recipe.
Blackberry, Mint, Black Pepper Jam
This recipe is based on a basic blackberry jam recipe and “Blackberry, Burgundy Plum, Mint, and Black Pepper Jam” from Jam Session
Ingredients
- 5 c. crushed blackberries
- 5 large mint sprigs (about 4 inches in length)
- 1 t. fresh ground pepper
- 2 T. lemon juice
- 1 package pectin (3 T + 1 1/2 t.)
- 7 c. sugar
Instructions
- Prepare canner, jars and lids.
- In a large glass measuring cup, start mashing the berries with a potato masher until you have five cups.
- In a large, deep stainless steel kettle, combine crushed berries, mint, ground pepper, lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
- Remove mint sprigs.
- Add sugar all at once and return to a full, rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard stirring constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat. (Skim off foam if needed.)
- Ladle hot jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down to finger tight.
- Place jars in canner, covering with water and boil to process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.
Yield: seven 8-oz jars
I’m so proud of myself. I actually got all the jars labeled, too.
The mint is prevalent but the pepper was a bit downplayed. I wonder how the jam will be after it sets. Immediately after it cooled it was quite delicious on crackers.
I also made a batch of Blackberry-Lime Jam (adding a few twists from the original recipe like lime zest), Blackberry-Rosemary Brownies (from a Diana Henry cookbook—more to come), and created a new booze-based jam. (More to come on that later, too.)
I hope to post the other recipes soon.
What an impressive accomplishment!
I just updated this post, Mae. I totally had attributed this recipe idea to a different author. I had way too many cookbooks opened (hard cover and Kindle version) when I was putting up the blackberries. It’s corrected now.