How to Preserve Raspberries (Canning Raspberries)

Preserving raspberries is easier than you might think! Not to mention, so incredibly delicious! Use the canned raspberries to top your oatmeal, rice pudding or ice cream, add to desserts or just enjoy them as they are.

I love canning! Every summer and autumn, I make countless jars of preserved cherries, canned apricots, rhubarb, peaches, gooseberries, plums, or pears. Or whatever I happen to get my hands on… I also make berry sauces, many jams, and jellies, syrups of all kinds.

And then come the savory preserves, like green tomato pickles, sweet and sour zucchini pickles, preserved horseradish, and many others.

When I happen to get raspberries, I can some as well. I don’t can them as often as I can other fruit or berries, because they are expensive and not always easy to come by free of charge. But during good berry years, I get to pick some in other people’s gardens and that’s when this recipe comes in handy.

And believe me, these are so good, that you will end up buying some expensive farmer’s market’s raspberries every year to make just a couple of these jars.

What do you need?

• Fresh raspberries
• Granulated sugar
• Water
• Canning jars and lids
• A canner or a large pot
• Kitchen mitts
• Jar lifter (Amazon affiliate link)

Amounts

Berries:

• The amounts are totally up to you.
• If you have access to large quantities of raspberries, it is great, you can make as many jars as you can store.
• I only had enough raspberries for 3 jars this year.
• If canning more raspberries than indicated in the recipe, calculate the needed amounts of water and sugar accordingly.

Sugar:

• If you want the preserves to be less sweet, you can add less sugar.
• I don’t recommend adding more sugar, they are sweet enough as they are, and you still want to taste the raspberries and not only the sweetness.

Jars:

• The size of the jars is not very important either.
• The jars you can see in the pictures have a capacity of 350 ml/ 12 fl.oz/ 1 ½ cups.
• Fill them with raspberries as indicated and pour over the syrup to cover them.
• The indicated amounts are perfect for the jars I have, but if you notice that you have too little liquid, you can always make a little more syrup to make sure that the berries are properly covered.
• It only takes minutes to make extra syrup.

How to preserve raspberries?

• Wash the berries very well, and let them drain in a sieve. Remove any spoiled ones.
• Prepare the jars by sterilizing them.
• Fill the jars with berries, leaving about 2 cm/ 0.8 inches headspace.
• Heat the water in a saucepan.
• Add the sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar completely.
• Once it comes to a boil, let bubble once or twice and remove it from the heat.
• Let the sugar water cool for 5 minutes.
• Pour over the raspberries in the jars, covering them completely.
• Seal with the lids.
• Can.

How to can in a canner?

• Use the water bath canner according to its instructions. They might differ from my instructions.
• Fill a canner about half full with water.
• Bring to a boil.
• Lower the jars into the water one at a time with a jar lifter or use the canning rack of the canner to lower all the jars into the water at once.
• Make sure the water covers the jars by 2 ½ to 5 cm/1 to 2 inches. If there is not enough water in the pot, add some boiling water as needed.
• Bring to a boil, cover the pot and boil for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your jars and regarding the recipe instructions.
• Let cool for 5 minutes in the pot.
• Remove with jar lifters and wearing mitts and let cool completely on folded kitchen towels or cutting boards.

How to can without a canner?

• If you don’t have a canner, take a large pot that will allow the jars to stand in it and be completely covered with water.
• Place a clean kitchen towel on the bottom of the pot.
• Place the jars on the towel making sure that they don’t touch each other.
• Cover with hot water.
• Bring to a simmer, lower the heat, and can the jars for 15 minutes.
• Very carefully remove the jars from the pot. You will have to wear mitts and work very carefully, there is a lot of scalding hot water involved.
• Using a jar lifter would be best.
• Place the jars on folded kitchen towels or on a cutting board on the counter and let cool completely.

How to store?

• Check that all the jars are sealed.
• Refrigerate any jars that didn’t seal for up to 3 weeks.
• Store in a dark cool place.
• They will keep for at least 6 months and up to 1 year.

What to expect?

• Soft, sweet, and incredibly aromatic canned raspberries.
• And a delicious juice or light syrup that you can pour on top of desserts.

How to eat?

• Enjoy as they are.
• Pour on top of oatmeal, semolina or rice pudding.
• Or on top of ice cream.
• Pour over pancakes, crepes or waffles.
• Make desserts.
• Add the berries to cake fillings.
• Use the juice to moisten cake bases before filling.

More preserves:

Creme de Cassis Recipe (Black Currant Liqueur)

Watermelon Jam

Rhubarb Simple Syrup

Blueberry Rhubarb Jam

Watermelon Rind Jam