A Guide to Making Jams and Syrups With Wild Ingredients

I’m a bit peculiar with regard to jams. I had never heard of using pectin to gel them until I came to the United States. As I was growing up in Belgium, my mom made a lot of strawberry and rhubarb jams with the bounty of our garden, and the usual method was to cook the sugar and fruits over the boiling point, until the mixture reached the “set point” at 220°F (104°C).

Over the years, I’ve made a lot of jams using both methods (adding pectin or high temperature), but the more I started using wild ingredients, the less I was interested in either of these methods. I think boiling up to 220°F is excessive and not optimal for flavors.

Using Wild Ingredients: Let the Plants Talk to You

I have a different philosophy, and I always tell this to my students: Let the plants talk to you. If you want to create a true original and native cuisine, your cooking ideas and recipes should come from the ingredients themselves and their environment.

Presently I use the same philosophy with my “jams”; they’re often more like syrups, and I like to let the ingredients do their own thing.

Making Jams and Syrups: Pascal Baudar’s Method

My method is simply to create a somewhat heavy syrup (3 parts sugar for 4 parts ingredients) for wild berries such as blackberries, wild currants, gooseberries, and elderberries. Some berries, such as elderberries, will be cooked whole while others, such as our local wild currants, will be juiced first, due to the large amount of seeds they contain.

I don’t overcook the syrup—I simply bring it to a temperature of 200°F (93°C) for 12 minutes, then place the contents in half-pint (250 ml) jars and process them for 15 minutes in a boiling-water bath. For pint (500 ml) jars I process for 20 minutes.

Ingredients for Making Jams and Syrups