Mixed Berry Jam Recipe

This mixed berry jam recipe is one of my go-to recipes when berry season starts. I’m always over zealous when it comes to finding fresh strawberries and blueberries in the produce aisle, and end up taking a few cartons of berries home.

Making a mixed berry jam recipe, or mixed berry preserves depending on how technical you want to get, is a great way to preserve the great flavor of the berries long after berry season is over, although mine never lasts too long!

While a strawberry jam recipe is a classic in the jam world, I can’t help but have a preference for mixed berry. I think it’s the variety in flavor and touch of tartness that the blueberries bring to the table; something that strawberries alone cannot.

Together, the two balance each other out and provide a gorgeous, deep red and purple hued jam that will have you licking your fingers in complete bliss.

Making a mixed berry jam is really effortless, especially when you compare it to something like an orange marmalade recipe (although that’s a favorite too!).

Making jam like this, or really any kind of berry jam (i.e. raspberry jam, blackberry jam, pure strawberry jam, etc.) is as easy as dumping your fruit into a pot with some sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

In the case of this mixed berry jam, you’ll have an additional step of removing the strawberry stems and slicing the strawberries in half, but honestly that is still pretty simple prep work to do.

The berries will be stirred together with the lemon zest, juice, and granulated sugar until combined, then left to simmer away for 40 to 45 minutes. An occasional stir here and there will help you gauge just how much longer your jam will need to cook over the stove.

After that, you’ll simply want to scoop the jam into a jar, let it cool, then refrigerate and enjoy as you please!

A few notes about this berry jam and making jam, in general:

• This berry jam isn’t a sugar free jam recipe, so attempting to eliminate the sugar and use an artificial sweetener can’t be guaranteed to produce the same results. That said, this jam recipe does have less sugar than many jam recipes and tastes perfectly balanced in sweetness and berry tartness for most palates.
• Making jam isn’t so much about effort as it is about patience. You’ll need to give the jam a good 40 to 45 minutes to really reduce in liquid content and thicken to the consistency it should be.
• Feel free to substitute some of the blueberries or strawberries with another berry to make this a triple berry jam.
• Do not taste test hot jam with a spoon – it’s hotter than you think! Be sure to blow on it excessively and let it properly cool before taste-testing.
• Don’t skip out on the lemon juice. Aside from the aroma and flavor, the lemon juice plays an important role in aiding the gelatinization process of the jam!