Black Cherry Jam
You can easily make your own homemade cherry jam in less than one hour. Start to finish! Once you make your own, it will be hard to go back to store bought! Fair warning!
When cherry season comes around, it seems that I can never get enough! The sweet cherries, the tart cherries…. I will take whatever I can find.
Cherry jam is one of those things that you just have to make yourself. Buying it from the store is totally NOT the same experience. The flavor is so much brighter and it has less sugar and no high fructose corn syrup or preservatives. The taste will remind you of a summer’s day.
If you plan on pitting a lot of cherries, though, you will really want to invest in a cherry pitter.
They are super cheap online and well worth the investment, since they are small and fit in a drawer.
Don’t miss our complete step-by-step guide to canning.
What you need
- cherries with juice – use fresh pitted cherries or take some freshly pitted, frozen cherries from the freezer.
- water (not pictured)
- lemon juice
- sugar
- low sugar pectin
How to make it
Step One
Measure pectin and sugar.
Step Two
Mix the sugar with the pectin and stir until there are no lumps.
Step Three
Heat jars and lids. Pit cherries. Chop. Add cherries, water and lemon juice to large pot. Heat over medium-high heat. Mash cherries with a potato masher.
Step Four
Add pectin/sugar mixture slowly to juice in pot. Stir until full boil is achieved.
Step Five
Once the mixture has boiled, add remaining sugar all at once. Stir until full rolling boil is achieved. Boil for one full minute. Skim off foam if needed.
Step Six
Fill hot jars with hot jam leaving ½ inch headspace. A canning tool set is very handy for this.
Step Seven
Remove air bubbles by running a spatula or wooden or plastic chopstick around the inside edge of the jar. Wipe rims of jars with damp paper towel.
Step Eight
Center lids on jars.
Step Nine
Place bands on and screw on bands finger-tip tight.
Add jars back to canning pot. Bring to boil. Process over a low boil for 10 minutes. Allow jars to sit in hot water for an additional 5 minutes.
Remove from canning pot. Place on counter. Allow to sit and cool for 24 hours. Check lids for seal. (Press down center of lid, if it flexes up and down, it has not sealed properly and should be refrigerated.
Store jars in a cool space for at least one year.
Pro tips for success every time
- Make sure that your pectin measurement is accurate! Adding a bit more is better than not having enough.
- Wash & sterilize jars and lids well.
- Pour hot jam into hot jars.
- Do not under process jars. A little extra time is better than too little time.
- Adjust time for elevation. Here’s a great guide by BHG.com
- Do not exceed 10 half pint jars per batch.
Some other homemade jam recipes
More recipes with fresh cherries
Tools I Use
Love growing your own fruits and vegetables? These articles are packed full of information about how to get that big harvest by the end of the season!
The first section is Planning Your Garden. Second is Preparing the Garden Site.
The third is Choosing Plants and Planting Your Garden. The fourth is Garden Maintenance.
The last is Harvesting a Garden and Preserving the Harvest, this article has over 100 FREE recipes for preserving your harvest!
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I hope you enjoyed the recipe today.
Enjoy. And have fun cooking!
Cherry Jam
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ c prepared fruit
- ⅓ c water
- 1 ½ tbsp Bottled Lemon Juice
- 1 ½ Tbsp Low Sugar Pectin
- ½ c up to 1/2 c. sugar You can use 0 to 1/2 cup, of added sugar.
Instructions
- Prepare jars. Wash in hot, soapy water and rinse thoroughly. There's no need to sterilize the jars since the processing time is ten minutes. Fill the canning pot and get it started heating. Add the jars to the pot so they are warm.
- Place washed lids in a small saucepan and cover with boiling water. Let sit until ready to use. I also add my ladle and funnel to this pot to sterilize them. Add to 8 qt. sauce pan. Add water.
- Measure sugar and pectin. Add a few tablespoons of the measured sugar to the pectin.
- Pit the cherries. Bring the cherries and lemon juice to a boil, and add the pectin/ sugar mixture. Again, bring to a full boil (one that can’t be stirred down).
- Add the rest of sugar all at once. Bring to a full boil and boil for 1 full minute.
- Fill jars with hot jam. Remove air bubbles with a bubble tool or chopstick.
- Wipe the rim of jars clean with a wet paper towel and place the lid on. Add the band and tighten to fingertip tight.
- Place filled jars into canning pot and bring to boil. Low boil for 10 minutes.
- Turn off heat and allow to sit in water for 5 minutes.
- Leave undisturbed on a counter for 24 hours,
- Check lids by pushing down in center. If lids flex up and down, the jar is not sealed and should be refrigerated.
- Jars that have sealed should be stored in a cool place for a year. (If it lasts that long!)
- This recipe makes 2 half-pint jars of jam.
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Notes
Nutrition
Originally published June 22, 2020. Updated with new content May 23, 2022
I want to make cherry jam.
You have raspberries in your recipe. What is the measurement for cherries
It’s the same quantities. That is a universal measurement for most fruits. The editors didn’t catch the raspberry reference. It is corrected now. Thanks Debbie!