How to Make Raspberry Jam in Canada (Seeded or Seedless)

Raspberry jam is the easiest Canadian jam to set. Raspberries bring their own pectin and their own acid; you just provide sugar and a brief cook. The result is the most flavourful jam on the shelf.

This guide covers the Bernardin water-bath method with both seeded and seedless paths, plus pectin and no-pectin options. The processing time is the standard Bernardin time; verify against your edition.

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Pick your raspberries

Garden raspberries (best for home jam)

• Boyne — Prairie classic, hardy zone 3, summer-bearing
• Killarney — Ontario standard, summer-bearing
• Nova — Atlantic Canada and Ontario, summer-bearing
• Heritage / Polana / Joan J — fall-bearing/everbearing, smaller crops over longer period
• Tulameen — BC commercial variety, large, premium

Wild raspberries

If you have access to wild Rubus idaeus in Canadian forests (most provinces have wild raspberries in cleared areas, roadsides, abandoned fields), they make the most intense jam. Smaller berries, more concentrated flavour (growing raspberries in Canada).

Farmer’s market raspberries

Most reliable source if you don’t grow your own. Pick a Saturday in mid-July (peak summer-bearing season) and buy 2-3 baskets at once.

Frozen raspberries

Work perfectly for jam — frozen often makes better jam than fresh because freezing breaks cell walls. Use directly from frozen; don’t thaw before measuring.

You need about 1 kg of raspberries (5 cups crushed) for a 6-jar batch.

What you need

• Fresh or frozen raspberries — the quantity your pectin box’s raspberry 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
• Path B is Bernardin’s own no-added-pectin recipe and carries its own quantities and yield
• 1 box Bernardin Original powdered pectin OR Certo liquid pectin, the amount your box’s recipe specifies (Path A)
• 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, potato masher (which canner to buy)
• Food mill or fine-mesh sieve (only if making seedless jam) — which mill to buy, and when a sieve is enough
• Frozen plates for cold-plate test (no-pectin path)

Method (Path A: With commercial pectin, seeded)

Step 1: Prep raspberries

1. Sort raspberries — discard any mouldy, mushy, or unripe berries.
2. Wash gently by dunking in cool water (don’t run tap water over — bruises berries).
3. Drain in colander. Pat very dry with tea towels.
4. Crush in a heavy pot with a potato masher. Some berries should stay partially intact; others fully crushed.
5. Measure — should be 5 cups crushed.

Step 2: Seedless option

If making seedless jam, pass crushed berries through a food mill with the fine disc, OR press through a fine-mesh sieve with a spatula. Discard the seed-and-pulp residue (or save for a sauce).

This step costs about 15-20% of yield but produces dramatically smoother jam.

Step 3: Combine

1. Stir the crushed (or strained) raspberries, the bottled lemon juice and the pectin — quantities from your box recipe — plus optional ½ tsp butter in the pot.
2. Stir constantly over high heat.

Step 4: 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 raspberries + 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 5: 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.
8. Cool 24 hours undisturbed. Check seals.

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

Bernardin publish a pectin-set Berry or Black Currant jam in the Complete Book of Home Preserving (ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5) at p.29, and raspberries are named in its fruit line. Their liquid-pectin Berry jam at p.38 is a different recipe and names only blackberries, boysenberries, dewberries and youngberries — raspberries are not on that list, so we do not send you there. Read p.29 if you are using powdered pectin; otherwise the recipe on your pectin box is the tested one. We are not restating the book’s quantities here.

Corrected 17 September 2026: Path A on this page used to publish quantities of its own — 1 kg of raspberries, 5 cups of sugar, 2 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 flavour variations this page carried have been removed for the same reason. Path B (p.21) is unchanged.

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

Bernardin publishes one traditional no-added-pectin recipe covering a whole class of berries — Complete Book of Home Preserving, ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5, p.21, a variation on their Traditional Apricot Jam on p.20. The class is theirs, and they name its members: blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, dewberries, gooseberries, loganberries, raspberries, youngberries, or a combination of these berries. Raspberries are in it. There is no separate tested no-pectin raspberries jam — this recipe is what covers them.

• 9 cups (2.25 L) crushed berries
• 6 cups (1.5 L) granulated sugar
• Makes about six 250 mL jars

No lemon juice. p.21 lists fruit and sugar for this variation and nothing else. The 4 tbsp (60 mL) of bottled lemon juice on p.20 belongs to their apricot jam, and we are not moving a figure onto a recipe they did not put it in. Path A above is a different recipe and keeps its own lemon juice.

1. Combine the crushed berries 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 — 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.

Bernardin’s tip for this section: use about three parts fully ripe fruit to one part slightly under-ripe, because under-ripe fruit carries more pectin. Expect a softer set and a darker colour than Path A.

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 crushed raspberries, 4 cups of sugar and a 20–25 minute boil, with no source behind any of it. It is replaced above by what Bernardin publishes: the traditional berry jam at p.21 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)
• Colour fades over years; cosmetic only

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 six flavour variations — vanilla, rose petals, Chambord, a raspberry-peach blend, a raspberry-rhubarb blend and a balsamic finish. They are gone. Each added, swapped or re-proportioned something the tested recipe did not contain, on quantities no source we hold publishes, and the Chambord one was labelled refrigerator-only — which admits the jar was never tested rather than making it safe. Follow the recipe on your pectin box, or the Complete Book’s berry jam at p.29.

Raspberry jelly (no pulp)

Strain the pulp completely; use the juice with sugar and pectin. Crystal-clear, beautiful, more delicate flavour than full jam.

Freezer raspberry jam

See freezer jam guide — raspberries are excellent in freezer jam.

How to use raspberry jam

• On toast or scones — daily breakfast staple
• PB&J — peanut butter and raspberry jam is the gourmet version
• Filling for thumbprint cookies, linzer cookies, jam tarts
• Stirred into oatmeal or yogurt
• As a glaze for chicken or pork
• Topping for ice cream
• Cheese plate — sharp cheddar, aged brie, blue cheese
• In a Victorian sponge cake
• Crepe filling with whipped cream
• As a cocktail mixer — 1 tbsp in champagne (raspberry royale)
• Gift jars — the prettiest red on the shelf

Common problems

• Tiny seeds annoy. Use the seedless food-mill method next batch.
• Jam too soft. Either undercooked on the no-pectin path, or the pectin was skipped. See why didn’t my jam set for the salvage paths.
• Jam too firm/gummy. Over-cooked. Warm gently with a teaspoon of water to loosen.
• Foam stayed in. Skim better or use ½ tsp butter trick.
• Jam darkened. Oxidation in storage. Store dark.
• Colour faded. Light exposure or long storage. Store dark, and use within a year — Bernardin’s guidance for home-canned food, and the point at which colour starts to go.
• Berries floated to top. Stir between jars, or let jam cool 5 minutes before ladling.
• Jar didn’t seal. The 24-hour rule.
• Tastes flat. 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.

Why home raspberry jam is worth it

• Best raspberry flavour you’ll taste — commercial raspberry jam is over-sweetened and over-processed
• Cheap if you grow them — a single 2 m² raspberry patch produces 5-10 kg of fruit per season
• Easy to set — raspberries are the most cooperative jam fruit
• Gift-friendly — beautiful red jars
• Better in winter — fresh imported raspberries in February cost $5 for a tiny clamshell; your summer jam is the real thing
• Heritage Canadian — backyard raspberry canning is a multigenerational tradition

Lower-sugar and sugar-free options

Raspberries are naturally high in both pectin and acid, so they take to reduced sugar better than most fruit — the set still holds. For a canned low- or no-sugar batch, use Bernardin No-Sugar-Needed Pectin and follow the tested recipe on the box; the sugar in a standard jam is mostly about set and texture, so cutting it gives a softer, more intensely raspberry spread. Follow the box quantities exactly — they differ from regular pectin and Bernardin revises them between editions, so we don’t reprint them. For a no-cook route, see the sugar-free section of our freezer-jam guide. Reduced-sugar jam keeps a shorter time once opened — the same one-week refrigerated window applies, and it is the ceiling rather than a target.

Next steps

• How to make strawberry jam — gateway recipe
• How to make blueberry jam — August companion
• How to make blackberry jam — bramble-berry sibling, late summer
• How to make peach jam — August stone fruit
• How to freeze berries in Canada — store for off-season jam
• Why didn’t my jam set — troubleshooting
• Water-bath canning pillar — broader method