How to Make Apricot Jam in Canada (Bernardin Method)

Apricot jam is the early-August preserve that captures the all-too-short Okanagan apricot season. Apricots are at peak for about three weeks; a batch of jam locks in their golden colour and unique sweet-tart flavour for the year.

This guide covers the Bernardin water-bath method. The processing time is the standard Bernardin time; verify against your edition.

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Pick your apricots

Best for jam

• Okanagan-grown — BC commercial varieties (Goldcot, Harlayne, Skaha, Stark Early Orange). Mid-July to mid-August.
• Niagara-grown — Ontario varieties (Goldcot, Veecot, Harogem). Late July to mid-August.
• Backyard apricots — zones 5-7 across southern Canada produce apricots; usually slightly smaller and more tart than commercial.

Ripeness

You want apricots fragrant and slightly soft but not mushy. The skin should be golden-orange with a faint blush of pink, and the fruit should yield very slightly to gentle pressure.

• Too firm: under-ripe; let sit on counter for 1-2 days to ripen
• Too soft: over-ripe; use immediately; they’re better for jam than fresh eating
• Brown spots: trim out; smaller blemishes are fine for jam

Don’t use

• Dried apricots — entirely different product; needs different recipes
• Underripe apricots — won’t develop full flavour during cooking
• Bruised apricots beyond minor spots — trim or discard
• Imported supermarket apricots in winter — picked underripe, never ripened properly

You need about 1.5 kg of apricots (5 cups prepared) for a 6-jar batch.

What you need

• Fresh ripe apricots — the quantity your pectin box’s apricot jam recipe gives
• Granulated sugar, bottled lemon juice and pectin — the quantities from that same box recipe; don’t cut the lemon juice, the acidity depends on it (see the FAQ)
• Bernardin Original powdered pectin OR Certo liquid pectin — Path A. Path B is Bernardin’s own no-added-pectin recipe and carries its own quantities and yield
• Optional: ½ tsp butter to reduce foam
• Bernardin 250 mL regular-mouth jars, fresh SNAP lids, bands
• Standard canning kit — jar lifter, headspace tool, funnel, water-bath canner, ladle, large heavy pot, paring knife (which canner to buy)
• Frozen plates for cold-plate test (no-pectin path)

Method (Path A: With commercial pectin — most reliable)

Step 1: Prep apricots

1. Wash apricots under cool water; pat dry.
2. Halve each apricot along the natural seam.
3. Twist halves apart; pit comes out cleanly on freestones.
4. Chop halves into 6 mm (¼ inch) pieces. Leave skins on (or peel via blanch-and-shock if you want smoother jam).
5. Measure — the quantity your box recipe gives.

Step 2: Combine

1. Stir the chopped apricots, the bottled lemon juice and the pectin — quantities from your box recipe — plus optional ½ tsp butter in a heavy pot.
2. Stir constantly over high heat.

Step 3: Boil and add sugar

1. Bring to a full rolling boil — one that can’t be stirred down.
2. Add all the sugar at once — the amount your box recipe gives — stirring vigorously.
3. Return to a full rolling boil and boil hard 1 minute exactly.
4. Remove from heat, skim foam.

For Certo liquid pectin: combine apricots + sugar + lemon juice. Bring to rolling boil. Add the amount of Certo your box’s recipe specifies. Return to rolling boil; boil 1 minute. Remove.

Step 4: Jar and process

1. Have your water-bath canner simmering.
2. Have hot jars ready, fresh SNAP lids on the counter.
3. Ladle hot jam into hot jars through a funnel. Leave 0.5 cm (¼ inch) headspace.
4. Run the headspace tool down each jar to release bubbles.
5. Wipe rims. Apply lids fingertip-tight.
6. Process 10 minutes at altitudes up to 305 m (verify with Bernardin edition).
7. Adjust for altitude per our altitude article. The Okanagan is at 300-500 m altitude — most BC home canners need 5 extra minutes.
8. Cool 24 hours undisturbed.
9. Check seals. Label, store.

If a jar doesn’t seal: the 24-hour rule applies.

Bernardin publish two pectin-set apricot jams of their own in the Complete Book of Home Preserving (ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5): a powdered-pectin Apricot at p.29 and a liquid-pectin Apricot at p.38. Each is a complete recipe with its own quantities, and the two differ from each other because the pectin type changes the proportions. Read the one that matches the pectin in your hand; we are not restating their quantities here.

Corrected 17 September 2026: Path A on this page used to publish quantities of its own — 1.5 kg of apricots, 5 cups of sugar, 4 tbsp of bottled lemon juice, and a yield of 6 × 250 mL jars — beside a pectin amount deferred to the box. They were ours. A pectin set is calibrated to the fruit, the sugar and the pectin together, so the box recipe governs all of them, and Path A now defers to it throughout. The nine flavour variations this page carried have been removed for the same reason. Path B (p.20) is unchanged.

Method (Path B: Bernardin’s traditional no-pectin jam)

Bernardin publishes a traditional long-cook apricot jam made without added pectin — Complete Book of Home Preserving, ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5, p.20. These are their quantities, not ours:

• 8 cups (2 L) chopped pitted peeled apricots
• 4 tbsp (60 mL) bottled lemon juice
• 6 cups (1.5 L) granulated sugar
• Makes about nine 250 mL jars

1. Combine the apricots, lemon juice and sugar in a large deep stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.
2. Boil, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens. Bernardin gives no minute count here — the gel test below is what tells you it is done.
3. Take it off the heat and test the gel. Once it has reached the gel stage, skim the foam.
4. Ladle into hot 250 mL jars leaving 0.5 cm (¼ inch) headspace. Release air bubbles, wipe the rims, apply fresh SNAP lids fingertip-tight.
5. Process 10 minutes with the jars completely covered by water, adjusted for your altitude per our altitude article.
6. Turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then lift the jars out. Cool 24 hours undisturbed and check the seals — if one did not seal, the 24-hour rule applies.

Expect a softer set and a darker, slightly caramelized flavour than Path A. Bernardin’s own note on this section: the longer cooking reduces the yield and concentrates the sugar, and these jams generally take less added sugar relative to fruit than pectin ones do.

The gel test

A jam with no added pectin is finished when it passes a gel test, not when a timer goes off. Bernardin publishes three tests on p.19. The one that needs no thermometer is the refrigerator test:

Take the pan off the heat first, so it cannot overcook while you test. Chill two or three small saucers in the freezer. Put a teaspoonful (5 mL) of the jam on a cold saucer, chill it in the freezer for 1 minute, then push the edge with your finger — jam that has reached the gel stage is set, and the surface wrinkles when you push it. If it has not gelled, put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes and test again on a fresh cold saucer. The full walk-through is in why didn’t my jam set.

Bernardin publishes two others on the same page: a sheet test off a cold metal spoon, and a thermometer test. Read them at p.19.

Corrected 17 September 2026: this page’s no-pectin method used to be ours — 5 cups of chopped apricots, 4.5 cups of sugar and a 25–30 minute boil, with no source behind any of it. It is replaced above by what Bernardin publishes: Traditional Apricot Jam at p.20 of the Complete Book of Home Preserving (ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5). Their recipe has different quantities and gives no boil time at all; the gel test is what ends the cook. The processing time, 10 minutes for 250 mL jars, and the 0.5 cm headspace are unchanged.

Storage

• Cool, dark, dry place at room temperature
• Best quality 12 months — Bernardin’s guidance is to use home-canned food within one year. That is a quality window, not an expiry: the jar is as safe as the process made it. Colour, flavour and texture fade.
• After opening: refrigerate, use within one week (HealthLink BC)
• Inspect before opening — apricot jam holds golden-orange colour well; significant darkening means oxidation (safe, less attractive)

Corrected 31 Aug 2026: this page previously gave an after-opening window of 3-4 weeks. HealthLink BC File #22 publishes one week for any opened home-canned container — “Once the container has been opened, refrigerate leftovers, and use within one week.” Our longer figure was never attributed to anyone. The shelf life of the sealed jar is unchanged.

Variations

This page used to carry nine — vanilla, almond extract, ginger, cardamom, orange zest, rosemary, amaretto, a chunky preserve and an apricot-rhubarb blend. They are gone. Each added, swapped or re-proportioned something the tested recipe did not contain, on quantities no source we hold publishes, and two were labelled refrigerator-only — which admits the jar was never tested rather than making it safe. Follow the recipe on your pectin box, or one of the Complete Book’s apricot jams at p.29 and p.38.

How to use apricot jam

• On toast or scones — classic breakfast
• Filling for thumbprint cookies and danish pastries
• Glaze for roast chicken, pork tenderloin, ham — brush in the last 15 minutes
• Cheese pairing — brie, camembert, aged cheddar, blue cheese
• Stirred into yogurt or oatmeal
• Over vanilla ice cream
• In linzer cookies — apricot is the traditional filling
• As a sandwich filler with cream cheese
• For Sachertorte-style cakes — brush between layers
• In crepe filling with cream
• Holiday gift — golden colour is festive

Common problems

• Jam didn’t set. Apricots are moderate-pectin; commercial pectin gives reliable set. See why didn’t my jam set for salvage paths.
• Foam stayed in. Skim better; use ½ tsp butter trick.
• Jam tastes bland. The lemon juice was skipped or cut. There is no tested way to correct the acid of a finished jar, so treat the batch as a fridge preserve and follow the box recipe next time.
• Apricot pieces floated to top. Stir mid-jarring or let jam cool 5 minutes before ladling.
• Brown spots in jam. Apricot bruises went in. Trim more carefully next batch.
• Skins are chewy. Either tough-skinned variety or apricots were old. Peel via blanch-and-shock next time.
• Jar didn’t seal. The 24-hour rule.
• Colour faded after months. Light exposure. Store in dark.

Yield expectations

• A typical Canadian household makes 6-12 × 250 mL jars per season

Why home apricot jam is worth making

• Best apricot flavour you’ll taste — peak Okanagan or Niagara fruit captured at its best
• Cheap when local — apricots are $3-5 per pound at peak; 1.5 kg makes 6 jars
• Excellent gift — golden colour, distinctive flavour
• Better than commercial — supermarket apricot jam is over-sweet and pale
• Heritage Canadian — Okanagan apricot canning has been a BC family tradition for over a century

Bonus: freeze apricots for off-season jam

Apricots freeze well for later jam-making:

1. Halve and pit ripe apricots.
2. Tray-freeze pieces on parchment-lined sheets for 2-4 hours.
3. Transfer to freezer bags; press out air.
4. Use directly from frozen for jam in January or February.

A 5 kg apricot purchase at peak yields 2-3 jam sessions, each producing 6 jars.

Next steps

• How to make peach jam in Canada — companion stone-fruit jam
• How to make plum jam in Canada — same season, same Okanagan/Niagara regions
• How to make strawberry jam in Canada — gateway recipe
• How to make sour cherry jam in Canada — distinctive stone-fruit jam
• How to freeze berries in Canada — same tray-freeze method for apricots
• Why didn’t my jam set — troubleshooting
• Canning altitude adjustments — required reading
• Water-bath canning pillar — broader method