Sour cherry/apricot, apricot, and black raspberry.
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Apricot jam the three-day-way
They say to use hard ripe fruit for jam because as the fruit softens its pectin weakens. But to me “hard ripe” is an oxymoron. I use mostly dead ripe fruit, because the point of jam is the flavor and I’m not interested in seeing the jam stands up on it’s own. Since too much heat also diminishes the flavor, I use heat for less time and a large pan, a stainless steel fryer, (so the fruit can cook quickly). Use a flat-top-spoon that doubles as a scraper to keep the jam from burning on the bottom of the pan.
I used to make all sorts of jam using this recip but now I only do apricot. Except this year a got some sour cherries and I used Martha Stewart’s recipe and it worked.
Apricot or Peach Jam
4 cups sugar
4 heaping cups sliced fresh apricots with skin
½ cup lemon juice OR AS NEEDED California Lemons have less acid
1 pinch salt
½ teaspoon unsalted butter to keep it from foaming
- Pour 1 cup sugar into a large covered stainless-steel pan (I use a large chicken fryer).
- Sprinkle 2 cups of the sliced fruit over the sugar. Top with another cup of sugar. Spread the rest of the fruit on top. Cover the fruit with the remaining 2 cups of sugar, coating all exposed surfaces. Add a pinch of salt.
- Cover and set aside at room temperature overnight. Stir after 6 or 8 hours.
- The next day, stir it up and then heat the fruit mixture to a boil. Cook for 1 minute and remove from the heat.
- When it is cool, with a slotted spoon, remove the fruit to a stainless-steel bowl. Cover the fruit and cover the syrup still in the pan and let sit overnight.
- Wash your jars in the dishwasher, with a hot dry cycle. Place the jars mouth side down on paper towels. Wash the lids and rings by hand.
- Bring the syrup to a boil. Add the butter (to reduce foaming). Cook, stirring constantly, for another minute. I cheat and do 90 seconds .
- Add the fruit solids. Let the jam come to a boil again and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Fill and seal the jars. Turn them upside down and let them sit for 5 minutes. Then turn them back right side up.
- Let cool, label them and put them in your larder.
Note: Boil means a hard boil. And I pretty much only use the jam for crostata filling.
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I like the ones that allow you to do it over days like that!Not all the ones I’ve seen published say they are shelf stable but it sounds like this can work!
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I’ve made many jams with a multi-day method (I first learned it from Christine Ferber’s work.) I simply water-bath the result, as I do with all my jams… works fine!
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I try it sometimes too, but I always ask about whether recipes are shelf stable if they don’t describe the canning steps. I ask the same questions every year 
When you are filling the jars the jam is VERY hot and the jars are very clean and sterilized. soit should be shelf stable.
I use a stainless steel Chinese ladle and a canning funnel, and wipe the rims of the jars with a paper towel before putting on and tightening the lids. By the way the lid seals are now plastic instead of rubber which would break down. I reuse lids and nobody in my house has died…yet
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Just finished it, and pitting sour cherries is even more tedious than I remember: took over an hour to do 3 lbs. I turned on the TV and had something mindless on. but jam ( all 4 jars of it…) tastes great!
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Well done 
!
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Blueberry jam.
I’m a straight-laced bore when it comes to jam: fruit, sugar, lemon juice. No pectin, no-add ins - I like it old fashioned.
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Wonderful looking pan, looks exactly like mine! Falk?
Falk! 
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Me too and i liked to slow cook it in the oven. Doesnt splash the stove top which is a pain to clean.
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What is a ‘California’ lemon and are they desirable in this application because they have less acid?
Today I am starting the “Small Batch Mixed Stonefruit Jam” with Flavor Grenade pluots.
I love a recipe that allows a day or two between starting and finishing . Thinking of adding some Fresnos to one jar.
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I have never heard of a California Lemon. But here in California the Meyer lemon is very popular. I have one, my neighbor has one. “Meyer lemon, is a hybrid citrus fruit native to China. It is not a lemon, but is instead a cross between a citron and a mandarin/pomelo hybrid.” It has a fairly thin skin, and yes, it is less acid and has more sugar.
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You hit the nail on the head with “just fruit…,sugar and lemon juice.” I bought some sour cherry jam in Italy where they are called “amarena.” It wasn’t very expensive, and it did have a little sour cherry flavor. But it was not really sour cherry jam. I’ll have to look next time but I suspect it is mostly apple juice. If real sour cherry jam were available I imagine the cost of one small jar would deplete my retirement account .
We joke about some of the highly-processed items we see in the stores: not so much what flavor you want, but what color?
By the way Bormioli makes very nice canning jars with one piece lids.
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I had a feeling the ‘California’ lemon you referred to in your recipe was a Meyer. I had never heard of them referred to that way. I grew both Meyers and Eureka lemons when I lived in the SF BA. So did my MIL and GMIL. The Meyers were mostly used for juicing (froze gallons of juice for the summer) for lemonade and preserving. The tarter Eurekas went to all the other lemon applications, including bleaching elbows when necessary. I could go for a squeeze of Eureka lemon juice on a filet of sole right now, or abalone, or panfried calamari, or steelhead…
