Enjoy this exquisite flavour alone… tastes sublime not only on bread and toast, but on pudding, ice cream or yogurt, too. The raw berries are mildly toxic, never consume uncooked!

1. Sterilize the jars: Put clean and empty jars with separate screw lids in boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes. Carefully remove them (I use my BBQ tongs), place them on clean kitchen towels and fill them with the boiling hot jam immediately. Besides you could sterilize clean jars and lids in a hot oven at 110 °C (230 F) for 5 to 10 min before filling them with the hot jam.

2. Prepare the jelly:
Remove the nice plump and black berries from their stems (discard stems as well as any shrivelled or still unripe green berries) and rinse them thoroughly under cold water. Then heat the berries in a large pot for a couple of minutes until they burst and release their juice. You can speed up the process with a handheld blender, but make sure to only use it on its lowest setting, to avoid damaging the seeds (which may result in bitter tasting jelly). Pass the berry puree either through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth (it will be brightly colored afterwards!) or a food mill like Flotte Lotte and discard the pulp.

3. Measure the strained juice (mine was about 650 ml) before pouring it back into the cleaned pot and add a little more than the same amount of preserving sugar 1:1 (725 g). Bring to a rapid boil and let cook for 5 min while continuously stirring. When drizzling some jelly on a cold plate, it should set within a couple of seconds, otherwise keep boiling for a few more min.

4. Fill the jars: Fill the sterilized jars with boiling hot jelly using a funnel tube, if you own one, leaving about one centimeter of head-space. Try not to spill any jelly on the edges, because it’s crucial to work as clean as possible. Close jar with the lid (a tea towel helps to protect your hands) and let cool completely. Store labeled jars in a dark and cool place – given a vacuum has developed - for up to one year.

TIPS:
I tried different variations of this jelly in the past, with added grape or apple juice, scraped out vanilla seeds or lemon juice and zest. Yet this pure jelly version with only two ingredients remains our favourite.