Easy Homemade Blueberry Jam Recipe

Summertime is the perfect time to make homemade jams. Fruits are in the prime of their natural growing season, they’re often on sale at local markets, or maybe even in your own backyard. Summer is a great time to pick your own fruits at local farms for cheap.

If you tend to like a little fruit flavor on your morning toast or biscuits, summer is the perfect time to buy fresh fruit at a lower price, make homemade jams or jellies, and store them for use through winter.

I also have a great post with tips on how to keep your food fresh and last longer. You will find lots of great tips to avoid wasting fresh fruits and veggies.

In this post, I will detail the difference between jam and jelly, the benefits of making homemade jam versus buying it from a store or farmers’ market, and step-by-step instructions on how to make jam at home.

The difference between Jam and Jelly

Let’s start with the difference between jam and jelly. Both are fruit-based spreads. However, there is a difference in texture and how each is prepared.

While both use nearly identical ingredients, the main difference between the two is that jam contains bits and pieces of chopped or crushed fruit, and you keep the pulp in the final product. Only jelly is used in the fruit juice. There are no solid bits of fruit or pulp.

Both spreads are prepared in similar manners, combining fruit with sugar and sometimes pectin (which helps set or firm up the spread).

Another distinct difference between the two is the flavor. Jam tends to have a strong, vibrant flavor, while jelly has a smoother, more consistent flavor.

For this homemade blueberry jam recipe, I left out the pectin and used only fresh blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice.

If you only have frozen blueberries on hand, those will work well and still provide a delicious final product.

homemade jam versus store bought

One of the main motivations to making your own jam versus grabbing it from your grocer or farmers market is that you get to control the freshness of the ingredients that are used. Using fruits that are at peak freshness will provide a more robust and fresh flavor to you jam.

You can also control the types of ingredients. You may find high fructose corn syrup in store bought jam or jelly, where at home you would only use sugar.

If you prefer to use only organic ingredients, you also have control over that. Or, you may prefer a jam with lower sugar.

Making jam or jelly at home allows you to control the exact outcome for any dietary restriction you or someone in your family may have.

Homemade jam also allows you to prevent food waste by giving you another way to utilize fresh fruit before it goes bad.

why Leave out the pectin

A lot of jam and jelly recipes call for adding pectin. Pectin is a thickening agent that when combined with sugar, acid (lemon juice in this case) and heat causes a gelatin affect.

Most fruits actually naturally contain pectin, but as they’re heated cooks out of the fruit.

Pectin isn’t necessary when making homemade jam, but if you’re looking for a more jellied texture you would want to add it.

How long Does Homemade Jam last

Depending on how your prepare the jam for storage will affect how long you can store it.

If you plan to use your homemade jam within 1 month, you simply jar the jam and store it in an air tight container, keeping it refrigerated.

However, if you are planning to store longer, you will want to follow a complete canning process. Typing this blog has made me realize, I don’t have a blog post on how to can food, so looks like I have just found my next project.

With proper canning, you can store your jam for up to 1 year in the refrigerator.

You can also freeze your homemade blueberry jam for 3-4 months. When jarring, allow your jam to cool completely, leaving room at the top of the jar to allow for the jam to expand when freezing.

fresh vs frozen blueberries

You can use either. Both will provide a delicious jam at the end. However using fresh blueberries will give you larger pieces of fruit in your jam, and will give you more bursts of fruit as you’re eating.

When fresh blueberries aren’t an option, frozen work, and provide a wonderfully beautiful deep and rich colored jam.

You can try both side by side and decide which you like best.

Step by Step homemade blueberry jam

Start by adding 2 heaping cups of washed and dried fresh blueberries to a medium saucepan.

Then add 1 cup of sugar

Next add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice. You can use fresh or bottled

Over medium heat stir to combine all ingredients

Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to low, boiling for 10 minutes

After 10 minutes, remove the fruit mix from heat and using a fork or masher, gently mash the blueberries into pieces. You don’t want to completely mash the berries, as jam tends to have chunks and pieces of fruit and pulp

Once the mixture is has come to room temperature, store in air tight jar. You can keep the jam for up to 1 month with completely the jarring process. Following a complete jarring process will allow you to keep the jam refrigerated for up to 1 year.

Serving Homemade Blueberry Jam

This recipe is great on your morning toast, or biscuits.

I also have a delicious recipe for cherry jam without pectin. The process is nearly identical, but it uses cherries. You could also use grapes, raspberries, or strawberries to have a variety of fruit jams on hand.

This jam would taste delicious on toast served next to a homemade breakfast casserole. I have several quick and easy casserole recipes. These are great because you can make them over the weekend and have homemade breakfast throughout the week for your entire family for a fraction of what you’d spend grabbing something on the go from a fast food joint or coffee shop.

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