Ingredients:
- 4 cups blueberries, stemmed, rinsed and drained
- 3 cups water
- 2 strips lemons, rind of
- 3 cups sugar
- lemon juice
Instructions:
- Pour the blueberries into a saucepan and crush them with a potato masher or a wooden spoon
until most of the skins are broken. - Add 1 cup of water and strips of lemon peel and bring to a simmer.
- Turn heat down to low and cook the berries for 5 minutes at just under a simmer.
- Pour the hot berries into a strainer lined with two layers of cheesecloth and let the blueberry juice
drip through. - Twist the cloth to extract all the juice; there should be about 2 cups.
- Discard the berry pulp.
- Combine the remaining 2 cups water with the sugar in a small saucepan.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is clear.
- Wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, then boil the syrup, without stirring, until
it reaches 260 degrees on a candy thermometer. - Add the blueberry syrup to the sugar syrup and bring the mixture to boil.
- Boil for 1 minute. Let the syrup cool, then add lemon juice to taste.
- Pour the syrup into two pint jars and refrigerate if you plan to use it in a month or two.
- To can (for indefinite storage) Pour into canning jars with 1/2 inch headspace.
- Process in hot water bath for 30 minutes.
- Cool.