Lingonberry Jam

You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find a recipe (in English anyway) for lingonberry jam. The one I did find (101 Cookbooks) sounded lovely but wasn't what I had in mind-so I improvised.

I treated the lingonberries like any other hard berry. I suppose I could have prepared them as cranberries (since they are so similar) but I didn't. What I ended up with is lovely, and not so hard that it needs to be pried out of the jar, yet solid enough to mound nicely on a spoon. I will probably use it for glazing duck, or topping coffeecakes-so the somewhat softer texture worked well. If you prefer harder jam-cook it a bit longer until it really sheets from the spoon. Keep in mind too that it has quite a bit of natural pectin and will gel up as it cools.

I got six half pints and about an extra half a pint for the fridge. I'd make extra jars and lids anyway as berries are so variable in the amount of liquid they toss off. If you do pints, process them 15 minutes.

You Will Need:

9 cups crushed berries (I waited until they were cooked a bit to give them a rough mash with the potato masher as they are pretty hard. You could do the crushing before as well, but like cranberries, they also tend to pop as they cook)
6 cups sugar

Combine berries and sugar in a large pot. Bring to a boil over low heat. Once they boil, cook rapidly to gelling point stirring carefully (they splatter like heck) to prevent sticking.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars and process ten minutes in a boiling water canner. Let cool five minutes with heat off and then cool 12-24 hours.