You'll find many recipes for it as "chokeberry" the more common label. Both red and black chokeberries are frequently used to make jams and fall well into the acidic fruit range for safety. The amount of sugar used all depends on the type of pectin you use and how sweet you want it to be, Minimal lemon juice is called for in most recipes and is more to insure set than for safety.

If you are happy with the different texture and short shelf life of low-sugar spreads then chokeberry will be no different.

Dave

Thank you Dave :).

I did google it as chokeberry before posting, and found several recipes, but I did not find any that appeared to have been tested, so I was worried. I am delighted to hear that the berries are acidic enough!

Well, I cooked up my berries, and I am very disappointed :(.

I read on the web that cooking would make them less astringent. I simmered my 8 quarts or so of berries for a couple of hours, but if anything they are worse. Just tasting them multiple time made me nauseous.

I see online that this is due to tannins, and that sounds right -- it tastes like the tannin in other plants. I found a food science paper that said combine with proteins to bind the tannins, but that does not sound very useful for jam.

Is there anything I can do to make this big vat of berries into a good jam? I hate to waste food.

Have you tried mixing a little of the berry mush with an equal weight of sugar? Then you'd get an idea of what the finished jam would taste like. The taste of the berries alone isn't always a good guide to the taste of the finished product. (Wild) Elderberries, for example are foul until the sugar goes in.

Agree with floral. You don't say how much sugar you added to the 8 quarts of berries and most jams are close to equal parts sugar to berries or more. Plus 2 hours cooking sounds like an awfully long time of cooking?

Dave

I assumed that so far the OP had only cooked up the berries and water but if they've already added some sugar my suggestion to add an equal weight of sugar wouldn't be right. I also didn't register the 2 hours. To make berry jams and jellies you only need to heat the fruit enough to get the juice running before adding the sugar and bringing up to a rolling boil. For raspberries, for example, this would be a matter of minutes. Cooking for 2 hours would ruin the tastiest berries and risk burning.

I have made chokecherry. The berries are mostly inedible until you make jelly from them. Even after you add sugar, they can taste tannic. People who grew up eating the jelly (or syrup as they are notoriously difficult to get to set), love the taste. I make the jelly for my business but can't say I like it much. Also - the taste will vary widely based on the year and when they were picked (at what stage of ripeness). So you are dealing with a whole bunch of variables here of which you have no control. P.S. The astringency is what some people like about them.

I did add sugar, yes. And I experimented with small amounts of jam in a bowl, adding different amounts of sugar, lemon juice, lime juice, etc. Equal parts grapes helped, but at this time my grapes all taste too much like freezer :(. I could try some apple...

I should probably mention that I have decades of experience making jams and canning :). I know hours is a long time -- as I said, I cooked them that long only because I read online that it would decrease the astringency.

These are chokeberry, not chokecherry. But it sounds like iice9 might be talking about what I have? I appreciate all the info! These were picked after long ripening. I think my berries taste pretty much the same from year to year.

I'd love to hear any other ideas you folks might have. I'm really at a loss, here.

Many people use the terms chokecherry and chokeberry interchangeably even tho they are two different species. So what ratios of sugar to fruit did you try? More sugar and then even more is usually the solution to the flavor issues. In fact it often boils down to is the cost of all the sugar truly worth it to salvage some unusual fruits? So do you really want chokeberry jam? Have you made it successfully before?

Dave

I grew up on the berries. Best is chokecherry-crabapple jelly. Dolgo crab apples have a large amount of pectin. Cover choke cherrys wpith water, simmer a half hour or so. Drain juice through cheesecloth bag and savejuice. Do the same with crab apples, don't peel or core the little 1" apples. (Pectin is in the peels). Mix juices one to one with one part sugar.

Cook to single drop stage. Put in steril jars.

Lot of people pick their chokeberry crop too early and this leads to the acerbic taste in jam. Wait until there are no red berries left on the bush atall, and they squeeze very easily. This is often a month or more after the first berries n. They taste much better if you are patient!

I’ve heard & read that aromias sweeten a bit if left until after a first frost. I’ve tried it & have found that it is true but not a massive amount. They still have a tannin taste. If anyone has method to reduce tannin taste, ir it wouwould be greatly appreciated. I’m going to do some expermenting & searching.