This jostaberry jam is made with 2 ingredients, and it's all natural, without the addition of artificial ingredients.
You will love this jam if you have fresh harvested jostaberries at home or if you have a frozen batch which needs to be used up.
TL;DR
The jostaberries are cooked down with sugar to a jam as per our French method at home. Jostaberries are tart and a bit sweet and are best preserved in the form of a jam.
We have a shrub growing at home, so we have always turned these berries into a jam, but one can eat them raw too.
If you wonder about this fruit, the jostaberry, is a cross between black currants, European gooseberries and American gooseberries. The name, JoSta, is a combo of the German words Johannisbeere (black currant) and Stachelbeere (gooseberry).
Therefore, this berry cultivar is more common on the European continent, but it has been appearing a lot more lately on other continents.
Ingredient Notes
- Jostaberries — Fresh, cleaned jostaberries or frozen berries. We tend to harvest a bunch, clean them by pulling out the flower buds individually and freezing them batch by batch, until we have enough to make a jam.
- Sugar — Normal granulated unflavored sugar. The cheapest kind will do. Sugar helps in preserving the fruit jam. Note, if you switch sugar with another sweetener, you will end up with a jam that won't keep that long.
Process Overview
Step 1
Rinse your berries and pull out the flower buds.
Place the berries with the sugar into a pan, mix and heat up.
Step 2
Bring to a rolling boil and then reduce heat to simmer the jam down.
Reduce until the fruits appear cooked, and the jam appears shiny. That can take 30–50 minutes, depending on the heat setting.
Step 3
Blend the jam.
Test if the jam is set with a thermometer (The setting temperature is 220 Fahrenheit/105 Celsius) or by dropping hot jam on an ice-cold plate to see if it's set or still running.
Step 4
Pour jam into clean sterilized jars and close with a lid tight.
Place upside down to create a vacuum and leave it like that until it has cooled down a bit. Store or use as needed.
📖 Recipe
Jostaberry Jam Recipe
Instructions
- Rinse your jostaberries. Pull out the flower buds with your fingers from all berries. Collect the clean berries and weigh them.2.2 Pounds Jostaberries
- Pour the berries into a cooking pan with all the sugar. Mix it all well and turn on the heat.1.5 Pounds Sugar
- Keep on a medium high heat setting and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat after that and simmer.
- Cook down your jam, stirring occasionally, until the chunky jam appears shiny, and the fruits look cooked. This can take 30–50 minutes, depending on your heat intensity. You can check the setting point with a thermometer already, it's done cooking at 220 Fahrenheit/105 Celsius.
- Blend the jam with a hand blender. You can leave it chunky or smooth.
- Test the jam again if it's properly set. Either with the candy thermometer (220 Fahrenheit/105 Celsius setting temperature) or by dropping some hot jam on an ice-cold plate. The jam cools down instantly on the plate, revealing its true consistency. If it's not running, it's set, if it's running, it needs some more simmering.
- Pour set jostaberry jam into a clean, sterilized jar. Clean up with a wettex or sponge. Close with the lid tight and turn the jar quickly upside down to create a vacuum. Leave the jar like this until it's not hot anymore, and then turn it back upside to label with the name and date.
- Store the jam in a dry place, away from direct sunlight. I keep them on an open shelf so that we don't forget them at the back of the pantry.
Notes
Equipment
- Pan
- Hand Blender
- Candy Thermometer to check setting of the jam. (optional)
- A small Plate left in the freezer 2nd option to test jam setting point.
- 3 12 oz Canning Jars or 380 ml jars.
- Wide Mouth Funnel optional, helps in pouring the hot jam into the jar.
- Soup Ladle to pour jam into jar.
- Silicone Spatula to help you scrape out all the jam from the pan.
- Wettex Absorbent Sponge to clean jars if you made a mess.
Nutrition
Tips
- In France, we use copper jam pan to cook our jams. Copper is a more efficient heat transmitter, and the jams will cook far better in it. Optionally, we also use large stainless-steel pots.
- To test the setting, drop hot jam onto a cold plate. Before you start making the jam, put a small quarter plate in the freezer. When the jam doesn't run on the plate, it's ready to be sealed in jars.
- Otherwise, using a candy thermometer to check your jam setting is the safest method. The setting temperature is 105 Celsius/220 Fahrenheit.
- Use only clean jars. Your jars and lids should be sterilized. This is essential for extending the shelf life of your French jam. You can sterilize jam jars and lids by boiling them in hot water, heating them on a rack in the oven, or washing them in a high heat setting in your dishwasher.
- Your date jam will last for at least 10 to 12 months if you follow this recipe exactly, work in a clean environment, and store it in a cool, dry location out of direct sunlight.
- By altering the ingredient quantities, the shelf life will be considerably shortened. Sugar is a main ingredient in preserving your jam.
- If you skip adding sugar to your jam (which I don't recommend), eat your jam within days and in that case, reduce the quantity greatly.
Serving
In Europe, we either spread our homemade jam on a piece of bread for breakfast or mix it into yogurt. Flavored yogurts are enjoyed as a dessert.
Because of its thickness, you can use the jostaberry jam as a sweet condiment, complimenting your cheese board appetizers.
Jams are also used in baked goods like cakes and cookies.
You can add a dollop of this date jam to your cooked oatmeal or porridge too. I think it would taste wonderfully with Tibetan Tsampa porridge, Brown Sugar Oatmeal or Norwegian rice porridge.
Storing
Keep your unopened date jam jars on a pantry shelf, away from direct sunlight and humidity.
If you make them the French way, without a water bath, they will last for 10 to 12 months.
After you have finished filling them with the date jam, you can follow the FDA-approved canning guidelines by water bath canning your jam. This will prolong the jam's shelf life and provide an additional layer of protection. We generally don't do this in Europe.
In humid, hot places, keep the jars in a cool, dry place all the time or in the fridge.
Keep in the fridge after opening the jar. Avoid double-dipping, as it can lead to the growth of mold and is unhygienic.
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