A few weeks ago while visiting at my Mom’s house, I noticed a lovely bowl of apricots on her kitchen counter. “Wherever did you get those!” is what I asked her. I had been on the hunt for apricots to make jam with for several weeks previously. And when I say hunt, I mean it man. I’d called a couple of whole sale produce companies and inquired at some farmers markets…all with no luck. The only thing I could find were shrimpy little apricots at my grocery store for $2.99 a pound. That would be some darn expensive jam, right! Never the less, apricot jam is what I was after. Please understand, MyHandsomeHusband has a thing for Apricot jam. He loves it above any other jam and since I love him above any other, I make the jam. You know what they say about “the way to a mans heart…”
Anyhow, my Mom explained that the apricots came from her neighbors tree who seemed to have more than enough and could possible be anxious to get rid of a bag or two. Can you believe my good fortune! I tore open my wallet for some cash and went a runnin’, big paper bags in tow. My kids and I picked apricots in 103 degree weather and looked like a dirty bunch of vagabonds when we arrived home with our treasure.
I made the jam the next day.
The previously mentioned handsome man of my dreams was highly impressed.
We may or may not have smooched for a whole 2 1/2 minutes.
Now… let me show you how it’s done.
Apricot Jam, man.
Not smooching.
This is not that kind of website, as I’m sure you have noticed. 🙂
***Note: This recipe makes 5 pints of jam. If you have a lot of apricots and want to make more than 5 pints, you may! However, I would not recommend doubling the recipe. It works best to make one batch at a time, washing out your pot between each one. Also, I purchased all of my canning supplies from Walmart.***
Homemade Apricot Jam
PRINT RECIPE
Time: 1 hour
Yield: 5 pints
Recipe from MCP Fruit Pectin
5 pint-sized jars
New Lids
Rings
Blender or Food Processor
Wather Bath Canner
Wide Mouthed Funnel
3 1/2 pounds apricots
1/2 C lemon juice
8 C sugar
1 (2 ounce) box pectin (I like MCP)
1 t butter
1. Grab your jars and wash them in hot soapy water, or in your dishwasher.
You also want to wash your rings. These can be reused from year to year.
Lids, however need to be brand new. If you reuse old lids they won’t seal and your jam will go bad, quickly.
You want to take 5 new lids and drop them into some hot water and put them on the stove. When your jam is almost done cooking you will bring this water to a boil and let it boil hard for 1 minute. Since your hands will be busy stirring the jam while it cooks you want to get the lids ready to boil before you start cooking.
2. Wash your beautiful apricots. They are the most sweet and flavorful when they are soft and don’t have any green to their skins.
Carefully slice them in half and remove the pit.
Place the juicy fruit in a blender or food processor.
Blend them up, you will need 5 cups total. Pour the mixture into a large, heavy pot.
3. Measure 8 cups of sugar into a bowl.
4. Grab your pectin and sprinkle it over the top of the blended apricots. Stir it in.
5. Add 1 teaspoon butter…
and 1/2 cup lemon juice to the pot.
6. Turn the stove to medium high heat and allow the mixture to come to a boil, while you stir it.
7. Add the sugar a bit at a time, and stir it all in making sure it dissolves well.
8. Turn up the heat a bit and bring it to a rolling boil, while stirring constantly. Let it boil 1 minute. If it starts to get wildly boiling out of control, turn the heat off. It will still boil sufficiently with the heat off.
9. Turn your sauce pan full of water and lids to high and let them boil for 1 minute.
10. Remove the jam from the heat. Place a wide-mouthed funnel on top of each jar and pour the hot jam into it. Be so careful! It’s really hot. 🙂
11. Take a damp paper towel and wipe the top of the jar, making sure each one is clean and free from the jam. This will help ensure you get a nice seal.
12. Take a knife and carefully remove a hot lid from the sauce pan. Place one on each jar…
and then screw a lid around it.
13. Fill your water bath canner with warm water, add your jars to the rack and then lower it down into the water. Put the lid on and bring the water to a boil. I left them there in the boiling water for 25 minutes.
14. Carefully remove the jars from the canner and let them cool on your counter.
15. The jars will make a popping noise when the lids have sealed. Love that sound. 🙂 You can also test the lids by pressing the center of the lid. If it is stable then the lids have sealed. If there is a bit of give to it, it hasn’t sealed and I recommend keeping that particular jar in the refrigerator.
16. Store your jam in a dark cool place. Once you open a container, keep it in the fridge.
Enjoy!
35 comments
Where did you get your white dish? I have been looking everywhere for a set just like this?
Angie,
I bought the white dish at Ross, a couple of years ago. Good luck!
~Jamie
Nice job! It looks like your jam set beautifully and the color is incredible. I haven’t made any jam yet this summer as we’ve been house selling and buying (moving on Saturday!), but this really makes me want to get my canning stuff out right now. Thanks for walking us through the process as it’s always fun to see how someone else does their canning. I’ll save this recipe for next year. Also, congratulations on your apricot score. Those things are impossible to find.
Thank you for the step-by-step directions. We always canned as a kid, but that was one looooooooong time ago! 🙂
Great score on the apricots. I am a bit jealous.
Beautiful Jam. Gosh I wish I could find a tree of apricots. No such luck around here.
question can you use a water bath canner on a smooth top stove ? thought you should not ,but looks like i am mistaken.never knew what ever was wrong with using a flat top in the first place.any thoughts:)
Hi Anne,
I have read that smooth stove tops can crack with the weight of a water bath canner, but haven’t ever had any trouble with that myself. Good luck!
~Jamie
I’m chuckling right now – I love reading your posts. Congrats on the apricots – I am missing my tree right now – we moved to a new house last winter and don’t have a producing apricot tree anymore. But I’m looking forward to some nectarines soon. I used to make an apricot almond cinnamon jam to mix things up a little. It was always a big hit with the family.
Please stop teaching newbies that they don’t have to water bath can their jars. I am the one that get the complaints that there is mold around the top ring. They have to be water bathed so that you remove all the air in the top of the jar and bacteria will not grow. All jars must be water bath canned in order for them to be safe!
Cindy,
Thanks for your advice, I have rearranged the post to reflect the importance of using a water bath. I appreciate you taking the time to advise me as such.
~Jamie
There are so many unsafe methods recommended here. It is not any more time consuming to do this the right way. Please review the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s website. (http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html) This is a safety issue! You could be making people very sick by boiling your lids and not waterbathing your jam.
Katie,
Thanks for leaving this helpful link.
~Jamie
I think your jam looks perfect! And delicious I might say. 🙂
Your jam looks wonderful. Now I’m on the hunt for some apricots. Love your site and have made many of your recipes.. You rock!
you don’t need all that sugar and pectin also with less sugar don’t need the lemon juice or the pectin. making it all natural , it will be better for you. I have made Apricot jam for years
I just started canning last year. We have an apricot tree that was in abundance this year. I pretty much did the recipe that you posted above with one less cup of sugar. Nothing better then home made jam.
I’ve canned all my married life, following tradition left me by my Mom.
Apricot jam is one of our favorites. Mom often used one package of orange Jello instead of pectin and cut the sugar by one cup. Turns out great every time.
Apricot/pineapplejam is also to
die for –my hub’s favorite!
This jam looks awesome!! One question, do I peel the apricots before processing? TYSM!
Linda,
No need to peel the apricots. Hope you enjoy the jam!
~Jamie
hello jamie we made your homemade jam a few weeks ago and tomorrow we are making more of your jam .we love it thank you for sharing the recipe with all of us
we made 28 jars of jam yesterday it took 4 hours to get everything done
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Hubby came home with a 7 lb. bag of apricots yesterday, given to him by a friend. Tried your recipe this morning. Super easy and looks wonderful! Can’t wait to try it.
Jam looks good. Only comment is that headspace for jams is 1/4-inch to get a proper. long-lasting seal. Also boiling water bath is 10 minutes. 25 minutes way too long. Longer w-b for things like canned peaches which have been cold packed. Making some apricot jam now.
Actually altitude is what determines how long to process the jam – usually it is 10-15 plus additional time the higher you get – I live at 6000 ft so yes 20-25 minutes is right for my altitude. Here is a link to help – https://www.freshpreserving.com/altitude-adjusting.html
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How long can you keep the apricot jam….shelf life?
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Can commercially canned apricots be used in place of fresh apricots?
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I haven’t canned in six years due to illness. Before that, I canned all my life. Thanks for some reminders to my 75 year old brain. Was given a box of beautiful apricots yesterday, with offer to get more if we want them. Will make ten jars of Jam and around 15 jars of Preserves, or maybe more. I cook them basically the same way. I just pulse them to leave some little chunks and cook them for preserves. We live on a Texas Ranch 20 miles from town, so I will have to use Fruit Fresh because I am almost out of lemon juice.
Gotta start washing apricots.
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