Blackberry Spoon Jam
Whole berries and sugar, cooked down at camp into something you eat off a spoon.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 73
- protein
- 1 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Day one only
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Blackberries | 1 lb | ripe but firm, picked or bought the morning you leave |
|---|---|---|
| Granulated sugar | 1 lb | equal weight to the fruit |
| Lemon juice | 1 tbsp | bottled is fine and travels better |
Method
- Pick over the berries and pull out anything soft or split. Bruised fruit collapses and you lose the whole point.
- Layer berries and sugar in the pot, cover, and leave it an hour off the heat. The sugar draws out enough juice that you never add water.
- Set the pot over low heat until the syrup goes liquid. Do not stir with a spoon. Swirl the pot instead so the berries stay whole.
- Bring it to a bare simmer and hold it there. Skim the pink foam off the top as it rises.
- After about 20 minutes, drip a little syrup onto a cold spoon or a flat rock. When it sets up instead of running, it is done.
- Stir in the lemon juice, kill the heat, and let it cool uncovered before you lid it.
This is a preserving recipe carried into camp, and the whole trick is restraint. Sugar equal to the weight of the fruit pulls out enough juice on its own, so no water goes in the pot and nothing has to boil off. Stirring is what breaks the berries down into ordinary jam, so you swirl the pot and skim instead. What you get is fruit suspended in syrup, still recognizably berries.
Call this a day-one recipe. Fresh berries do not travel past the first night, and the finished jam sits in an open pot rather than a sealed jar, so eat it within a day or two. If you want it to keep, do the canning at home and carry the jar.
Packing
Berries ride in a rigid container, not a bag, or you arrive with jam already. Sugar goes in its own bag, pre-weighed to match. Bring a wide pot: a deep narrow one crushes the bottom layer under the weight of the fruit.
Variations
- Spoon it over instant oats or pancakes the next morning.
- A split vanilla bean in the pot for the last ten minutes.
- At home, ladle it hot into two sterilized jars and it keeps a year.
https://savoriurbane.com/dulceata-de-mure-intregi