A Seedy Part of the Fridge

Well, I'm still on my No Junk Food diet. Going well. I was in the market for some no-added-sugar blackberry jam, in fact. I picked some up at the Co-op and went happily home to try it on a piece of toast.

And nearly dented a filling on one of the multitudinous blackberry seeds. I mean, I do like blackberry preserves, but they've been lower in seeds in the past? I understand that a jelly is jelled juice, and a jam or preserve is made of crushed fruit. I understand that, and I enjoy eating crushed fruit - with some seeds - on my toast. But there is a limit to human endurance. There is a limit to what I can chew on the right side of my godforsaken dentition.

So I decided to perform an experiment using common sense and a small saucepan.

1. Spoon all the seedy jam into the saucepan, with one cup of water. Add a little maple syrup or honey - if you feel like cheating - and squeeze juice of one lemon slice. Add squeezed slice and boil gently until jam is a smooth liquid. About ten minutes.

2. Set sieve over a large measuring cup and pour hot liquid jam into the cup. Use the back of a spoon to crush fruit pulp from blackberry seeds through sieve. Discard seeds in sieve. Return strained juice to saucepan and heat for another 8 to ten minutes. Liquid should reduce and slightly thicken.

3. Cool five minutes and pour liquid jelly back into jam jar. Jam will set up and magically become a jar of blackberry jelly. Hurray, pectin!

And it's not bad, either. My teeth are saved, and I don't have to buy another jar of jam. SUPER.