~ Old Fashioned Blackcap Jelly and Blackberry Lemonade

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We dogs watch our girl out in the berries every morning for at least one hour. During this time, we are on the back steps waiting and this summer there are a lot of gnats who swarm us and swarm the girl. But she is resolute about picking every possible blackcap berry.

Blackcaps, they say, are "black raspberries" which we like to think of as wild blackberries. They are small and full of seeds and extremely Potent in flavor. We believe they are a Super Food.

We started out with this nice old-fashioned recipe online http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/old-fashioned-blackberry-jelly wherin you do not use added pectin but use enough underripe berries and lime juice for sufficient pectin. 

Our version has worked so far every time even though we made a Mistake about the amount of sugar and made ourselves a rather tart and tangy jelly. More delicious than average.

Blackberry Jelly

Makes about 5 half-pint jars of deliciousness.

4 full quarts of black caps, about 1/3 of them not quite ripe
2-1/4 cups sugar (original recipe calls for 3 cups - we cannot attest to whether it will jell with that much)
3 tablespoons strained fresh lime juice (or lemon)

Crush the blackberries. We tried putting them in a ziploc bag and crushing with a rolling pin. That worked. Alternately, we used a mashing device (possibly intended for apple sauce) which is like a sieve with a paddle that presses berries through a screen. That also worked. Both are equally messy.

Bring crushed berries to a boil with ½ cup water in a deep, non-reactive pan (6 qt. is best to prevent boil-over). Boil until the berries are tender and have released their juices, about 5 minutes.


Strain berries through a fine sieve (or jelly bag) over a deep bowl. Let drain for 30 minutes or overnight, turning the bulk occasionally to prevent clogging the sieve and letting the juices out. Do not press down too much or the jelly will be cloudy.

Reserve the solids for a second round of juice to make blackberry juice for drinking or blackberry lemonaid. (Recipe follows.)

Measure the juice - you should have about 4 cups. Do not add water to make up the difference. Use whatever you have and simply add sugar accordingly as noted below.

Sterilize five 1/2 pint jelly jars and keep them hot, put the flat lids in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water.

Rinse the preserving pan and pour in the blackberry juice. Add up to ¾ cup sugar for each cup of juice. We used only 2-1/4 cups for 4 cups of berries. Then add the lemon juice. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture registers about 220°F on a candy thermometer. This took about 15 minutes for us. Watch carefully at first so it doesn't boil over. Once jelly has risen in the pan and then settled back, the danger is over.

Drain the sterilized jars and jar lids. Pour hot jelly into the jars, leaving ¼ inch room at the top. Use a damp paper towel to wipe the rims of the jars, then put a flat lid and ring on each jar, adjusting the ring so that it's just finger-tight.

We set the jars in a place not disturbed overnight and they seal from the heat of the jelly. Some prefer to return the jars to the water in the canning pot, and boil for 5 minutes to process.


Blackberry Lemonade

Cover (by several inches) the leftover blackberry pulp from jelly with purified water in a large saucepan. Boil 5 minutes. Strain and use the liquid instead of water in making lemonade. Mmmm.