Come learn the recipe for the best jam made with the little-known fruit called Beautyberries.
There’s nothing better than jam on warm, buttered toast! Am I right? With a glass of cold milk and the knowledge you made it with your own two hands. (And with minimal effort, music to my ears!) What’s your favorite kind of jam to use? Strawberry, grape, orange marmalade? My favorite used to be seedless raspberry jam. But I have fallen in love with a new jam that you won’t find on any grocery store shelves. Beautyberry Jam.
Watch the Video!
I had about 24 cups of the berries stashed in my freezer! Watch me make SO MUCH JAM!
It’s lovely and sweet and delightful with such a unique, delicious flavor. It goes well with anything you’d put any other jam on but it brings a little unexpected flair to the mix. It’s really the best jam out there. And the best part, IT’S SUPER EASY TO MAKE. But first, let me tell you a little but about it.
What Are Beautyberries?
- Beautyberry bushes grow in the wild in the Southeastern part of the United States and other parts of the world. They are also know as the American Mulberry.
- The berries can be purple or white.
- They are often used for landscaping because the bright color of the berries. You can purchase a plant here.
- The berries are ripe from late summer to early fall and can be picked through winter, until the berries turn brown.
- The berries are a food source for many kinds of animals and can be made into jam.
We first discovered them when we lived in Northern Florida and were delighted to find them again in Texas! We’re big fans of trying edible things from the wild. It makes you feel tough and a little wild yourself 🙂
The berries grow in big clumps all packed together. And they are a super, bright purple. Like, “don’t touch that, it’s probably poisonous”- kind of purple. Most people use them for landscaping and are surprised to know they are edible, let alone make the best jam!
The best way to pick them is to have someone else (good job for one of the kids) hold a big bowl or pot under the branch and then you just run your hand down the main shaft of the branch, knocking off all the little berries. It kind feels like popping off little Styrofoam balls because they aren’t very juicy. And the smell is very interesting. It’s almost like a lemon/lime soda smell to me. Very pleasant.
Nathan says it smells like spaghetti-Os. Interesting.
What do you think they smell like?
The leaves are supposed to make mosquitoes leave you alone. I didn’t really notice if that was true, personally. I know there are tutorials out there for turning them into mosquito repellant but I haven’t tried any yet.
How Do The Berries Taste?
The berries themselves have a very mild flavor and each one has a seed inside. So, they aren’t great to just snack on straight off the bush.
The flavor of the jam is hard to pinpoint but I have a friend who described it as having “a rich berry flavor with floral notes”.
The sounds about right. Like if your loveliest floral perfume tasted like the most delicious berries.
How to Make the Best Jam From Beautyberries
Ingredients:
- 6 cups of beautyberries
- 8 cups water
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 packages low-sugar pectin (about 4 1/2 tablespoons)
Directions:
-Rinse the berries and pick out any bugs and spiders trying to hitch a ride. Take out leaves and any big twigs but anything else will get strained out later with the seeds.
-Pour 4 cups of berries into a big pot with 8 cups of water. Let that come to a boil and boil it for 20 minutes. The berries will be mostly floating on top at this point.
-Mash the berries against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon and then boil for another 20 minutes. The berries should be mostly under the surface of the water now.
-Use a fine sieve or cheesecloth and strain out all the skin and seeds.
-Return the juice to the pot and let boil until you have 4 cups of liquid.
**UPDATE**
I’ve had a few questions about this part. You use ALL the juice you just strained out of the seed and skin. Sometimes I have 6 cups of liquid at this point so I put it all back into the rinsed pot and continue to boil it until enough water evaporates so that I have 4 cups of concentrated berry juice.
-Once you have 4 cups of liquid, add 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Up until this point the berries and juice will be an unappealing brown but the lemon juice restores a lot of the color.
-In a bowl, Mix 1 and a 1/2 packages (about 4 1/2 tablespoons) of low-sugar pectin with 4 cups of sugar. Dump the sugar mixture into the pot and let it come back to a rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.
-Take it off the heat and let cool. It will thicken more as it cools. And enjoy the best jam from Beautyberries out there!
How to Store the Jam?
I used to can the jam but I have iffy canning skills and would often wonder if I was about to make my family violently sick every time we opened a new jar.
So I started freezing it instead. I take the less pretty (but way easier) route and just stuff it all into gallon freezer bags.
We take out a bag every now and then and have it on toast, ice cream, pancakes, biscuits, you name it.
I like to get a loaf of french bread from Walmart and toast some slices with butter. Delicious, cheap and gives me that rustic “I-made-the-bread-too” feeling.
Try the jam in thumbprint cookies. It’s awesome. So good!! Buttery, fruity, rich!! You’ll love it and they’re so pretty!
You can use the recipe from my post about Raspberry Almond Thumbprint cookies but swap the raspberry jam for beautyberry.
**UPDATE**
I’ve brushed up on my canning skills and now I have a few posts sharing how I like to do the whole process. Some of it might be a little weird but as Paige from Farmhouse Vernacular says “Your kitchen, your rules”. Check out how I make and can Wild Mustang Grape Jelly HERE.
You might also like this post about making Poor Man’s Honey AKA Mesquite Bean Jelly.
Some Final Notes
*I had my berries in my freezer for about five months before finally making them into jam this time. My jam is more of a dark apricot color but I promise it is a lot prettier if you make the jam from fresh berries.
*If your jam doesn’t thicken up, just call it syrup and that’s good enough 🙂
Remember: It’s Good Enough
Remember to notice your kids as they scrabble around to get the best berry-picking spots. Watch them as they take their first bite of the jam. Love their little faces as they discover this new flavor. And if they wrinkle their nose and proclaim “gross!”, laugh and say “more for me you little stinker!”
You’re making memories and finding satisfaction in doing just enough:)
Don’t forget to pin it!
Beautyberry Jam
This jam is sweet and delightful with such a unique, delicious flavor. It goes well with anything you'd put any other jam on but it brings a little unexpected flair to the mix.
Ingredients
- 6 cups beautyberries
- 8 cups water
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 packages low sugar pectin (about 4 1/2 tablespoons)
Instructions
- Rinse the berries and pick out any bugs and spiders trying to hitch a ride. Take out leaves and any big twigs but anything else will get strained out later with the seeds.
- Pour the berries into a big pot with 8 cups of water. Let that come to a boil and boil it for 20 minutes. The berries will be mostly floating on top at this point.
- Mash the berries against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon and then boil for another 20 minutes. The berries should be mostly under the surface of the water now.
- Use a fine sieve or cheesecloth and strain out all the skin and seeds.
- Return ALL of the the juice to the rinsed pot and let it boil until it reduces down and you have 4 cups of liquid.
- Add the lemon juice. -Up until this point the berries and juice will be an unappealing brown but the lemon juice restores a lot of the color.
- In a bowl, mix the low-sugar pectin with the sugar. Dump the sugar mixture into the pot and let it come back to a rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.
- Take it off the heat and let cool. It will thicken more as it cools. And enjoy the best jam from Beauty Berries out there!
Notes
If the jam doesn't thicken up you can re-boil it and add more pectin. OR just call it syrup and pretend you meant to do that 🙂
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
64Serving Size:
2 tablespoonsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 49Total Fat: 0gCarbohydrates: 12.5gSugar: 12.5g
Georgianna
Try basting your grilled chicken with it or topping your cooked chicken with it. Yum! If it’s good on chicken, I bet it might be good on fish also. I gave a jar of syrup to a friend, and she used it to embellish her barbeque sauce…and had some on pancakes.
goodenoughandstuff
Yum! I hadn’t thought of using it in savory dishes because it has such a floral taste. I’m totally gonna try that!
Baerbel
After the mashed berries are strained through cheese cloth and you are left with just juice, that would indicate Jelly to me. Jam has a thicker consistency. And 4 cups of sugar sounds way over the top.
goodenoughandstuff
Yep, you’re right. This is actually jelly but for some reason I called it jam all the years I was making it when we lived in Florida. So, I just stuck with that when I made this post 🙂 I know the sugar amount sounds like a lot but it’s a pretty standard amount when you look at other Beautyberry jelly recipes. You need all that sugar and the lemon juice for it to be safe when canning. But, you could get away with using less if you’re just using it right away for like a tart filling or something like that. What do you use the jelly for?
Dana Fleming
Thank you for sharing this recipe. So far, I made 60 half pints. I altered the recipe. I do not measure out 4 cups after mashing the berries in the sieve. I use all the juice. Also, I double the cheese cloth to prevent any parts of the berries from straining through the double layered cheese cloth. I add two packs of low pectin sugar. It’s important to know the yield. This makes 9-10 half pints. To can the jelly, use a boil bath for 5 minutes. The color is beautiful!
goodenoughandstuff
Doubling the cheesecloth is a good idea! I bet your jelly is crystal clear! I’ve started canning it too for Christmas presents 🙂 I actually use all the juice too. I boil it all until it reduces down to 4 cups. This gives the jelly a more concentrated flavor and I know how many pints I’ll get every time. I just updated this post to, hopefully, make it clearer what I mean at that step in the recipe.
Serena
Thank you so much for this recipe! Me and my daughter not only enjoyed foraging the berries, but we enjoyed making the jam “syrup” and memories. (We actually did get it to a jelly consistency but like the syrup better) We’ve used it on pancakes, as a marinade for tuna steaks and in a warm cup of tea. The grape/floral taste is amazing!
goodenoughandstuff
I’m so glad you enjoyed the berries so much! I know, it’s hard to mess up the “syrup” and I prefer it also 🙂 I bet it’s so yummy on tuna! I’ll have to try that!
Beth Coffield
I’ve made this recipe and enjoyed it so much. This year I’m adding less sugar and more lemon juice.
Beth Kisor
Unique and wonderful discovery of this plant mostly known only by the birds. Where we live the birds have already eaten ours!
goodenoughandstuff
Oh no! I hope you can get to them before the birds next year! I once had a neighbor who ripped out all of her beautyberry plants because she thought they were poisonous. But she had a bunch of chickens so maybe they would have eaten them before her anyway!
karla mironov
Delicious jelly! I wish I could have grabbed more berries, but then I might have wiped out the bush! I had to cut the recipe way back so my yield was less than half a pint jar, but it’s ok. I was dying to try it no matter how much it made. Thank you for sharing your recipe! PS mind might end up being too thick. Is there a remedy for this other than eating it with a spoon straight outta the jar? 😉
goodenoughandstuff
I’m glad you tried it! I hope you get more berries next year 🙂 If you can’t spread it, you can always heat it up to liquify it and pour it over things. You could use it as a tart filling. Just make sure to let it cool completely so it solidifies again. You can use a mini muffin tin and make my easy, flaky, pie crust for mini tarts: http://goodenoughandstuff.com/you-can-make-this-easy-pie-crust/ Good luck!
Nancy Kendrick
I’m confused about the pectin. 1 package of dry pectin is 6 tbsp, so 1.5 packages would be 9 tbsp. However, you list 4.5 tbsp in your recipe, which is not even a whole package. What is the correct amount?
goodenoughandstuff
Hi Nancy,
The packages I’m referring to are the 1.75 ounce boxes. Those have about 4 tablespoons of pectin. I sometimes buy the 5.4 ounce bottles of powdered pectin and then scoop out tablespoons from there. Hope that helps!