How to Make Rhubarb Jam in Canada (Bernardin Method)

Rhubarb is the easier sister of strawberry. It’s tarter, holds its texture better in jam, and — unlike strawberries — actually wants to set. If your strawberry jam didn’t quite work, rhubarb is what you cook next (growing rhubarb in Canada).

This guide covers the Bernardin/Canadian method for plain rhubarb jam, with notes on the commercial-pectin method and on the leaf-toxicity rule every new gardener should hear before they start.

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First: the leaf rule

If you’re picking rhubarb from a neighbour’s yard or a community garden, double-check before you start — what looks like a single innocent rhubarb plant is actually two zones of plant matter, one food and one not.

What you need

• Chopped rhubarb stalks — the amount your pectin box’s recipe specifies (leaves removed and discarded)
• Granulated white sugar — the amount your pectin box’s recipe specifies
• Bottled lemon juice — the amount your pectin box’s recipe specifies
• Bernardin Original powdered pectin OR Certo liquid pectin
• 7 × 250 mL Bernardin jars, fresh SNAP lids, bands
• Standard canning kit — jar lifter, headspace tool, funnel, large pot for the water bath, second pot for cooking the jam, ladle, potato masher (rhubarb softens to a pulp on its own, but a masher helps) (which canner to buy)

Method

With commercial pectin

Follow the recipe on your box of Bernardin Original or Certo pectin, and follow it as written. This page gives no quantities of its own, because the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving (ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5) publishes no plain rhubarb jam and we have not read the Certo package recipe ourselves. It used to print a fruit weight, a sugar quantity and a yield here and attribute them to “the standard Canadian rhubarb-jam recipe published on Certo packages” — a source nobody here has opened.

What the book does publish is Strawberry Rhubarb Jam at page 30, equal volumes of strawberries and rhubarb with its own tested figures. If you want a tested rhubarb-bearing recipe rather than a box one, that is the one to make: see strawberry-rhubarb jam.

Order of operations matters with pectin. Read the actual box. Liquid Certo: add pectin at the end after a hard boil with sugar. Powdered Bernardin Original: add pectin to the crushed fruit before the sugar. Don’t swap the order.

Cook time is short — typically a 1-minute hard rolling boil after pectin is in. The cold-plate test is your confirmation.

Corrected 17 September 2026: this page used to publish a second, no-pectin method with its own quantities — 6–8 cups of rhubarb, 4–5 cups of sugar, an overnight maceration and a 15–25 minute boil — and about 6 × 250 mL jars. No source we hold publishes a no-added-pectin rhubarb jam: the Complete Book’s traditional long-cook section covers apricot, berries, elderberry, strawberry, Damson plum and grape, and not rhubarb. Those figures are removed, and we cannot give a tested processing time for a recipe nobody tested. This page also used to send you to “the Bernardin no-pectin rhubarb-jam recipe” for a processing time; there is no such recipe. The commercial-pectin method above has since lost its quantities too: it printed a fruit weight, a sugar quantity and a yield attributed to “the standard Canadian rhubarb-jam recipe published on Certo packages”, a package nobody here has opened, so this page now defers to your own box. A cold-plate test with its own re-boil intervals, a two-parts-strawberries-to-one-part-rhubarb ratio that is not the book’s, and a ginger quantity carrying a borrowed processing time have gone with them.

Do you test for a gel stage?

There is no cold-plate or thermometer test on a pectin recipe. The Complete Book’s gel stage tests at page 19 open by saying they are for soft spreads made without added pectin — so on a boxed-pectin rhubarb jam the 1-minute hard boil after the sugar is what sets it, and a test that says “boil 5 more minutes” is working against the box’s own timing. This page used to run a three-plate cold-plate test here with its own re-boil intervals; that was ours and it is gone.

If a batch does not set, why didn’t my jam set covers what your options actually are.

Jar, process, store

1. Have your canner simmering with enough water to cover the jars by 2.5 cm.
2. Have warm jars ready, fresh SNAP lids and bands on the counter.
3. When the jam passes the cold-plate test, skim any foam off the top.
4. Ladle hot into hot jars. Leave 0.5 cm (¼ inch) headspace — Bernardin’s standard for jam.
5. Wipe rims clean. Apply lids fingertip-tight.
6. Process in the boiling water bath for the time and altitude printed on your pectin box. Typically ~10 minutes at altitudes up to 305 m for 250 mL jars; add for your altitude band per our altitude guide.
7. Cool 24 hours undisturbed on a towel. Check seals.

Use our altitude-adjustments guide for the band lookup; open Bernardin for the exact minute count.

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)
• Always check before eating for off odours, foam, or mould

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

Strawberry-rhubarb jam — the classic Canadian pairing

The most-made Canadian jam after plain strawberry, and the Complete Book publishes it at page 30 with its own quantities: equal volumes of strawberries and rhubarb, 2 cups (500 mL) of each. This page used to give the widely-repeated 2-parts-to-1 ratio, which is not the book’s. See strawberry-rhubarb jam.

The rhubarb brings:

• Extra pectin (helping the strawberry set without as much commercial pectin)
• Acidity (also helping the set, and balancing strawberry’s sweetness)
• A brighter flavour and a deeper pink colour

Rhubarb-ginger jam

Ginger is a common addition, and we are not publishing a quantity or a processing time for it. This page used to give both — about 30 g of fresh ginger, and the same processing time as plain rhubarb — and neither came from a tested recipe. Follow a tested recipe that includes the ginger, or leave it out.

Rhubarb-vanilla jam

Split one vanilla bean lengthwise and add to the pot during cooking. Remove before jarring. Pricey but luxurious.

Rhubarb chutney (savoury)

Not a jam — uses vinegar instead of relying on fruit acid. Different processing rules. If interested, look up a Bernardin-tested rhubarb chutney recipe; the acidification is what makes it shelf-stable.

Common problems

• Jam didn’t set. Rhubarb usually does set, but a batch can be too watery if the rhubarb was very young (high water content) or the pectin went in out of order. Full salvage paths in the jam-set article.
• A jar didn’t seal. The 24-hour rule applies.
• Funny smell after months. Discard the whole jar. See here for what to check.
• Jam tastes flat. Probably under-acidified — add the lemon juice next time, even if the recipe was written for someone using already-acidic young rhubarb.
• Reused SNAP lids gave a failed seal. Don’t. Single-use only.

What to do with too much rhubarb

A mature rhubarb plant produces 2–4 kg per cutting and you can cut twice per season — that’s more rhubarb than most households can use in jam alone. Other Canadian uses:

• Freeze raw. Chop, tray-freeze, bag. Keeps 12 months at −18 °C — the figure Unlock Food (Dietitians of Canada) publishes for plain frozen fruit; US guidance from the National Center for Home Food Preservation is shorter, at 8–12 months. Pull out for winter pies and crumbles. (See freezing pillar.)
• Rhubarb compote. Cook with less sugar to a chunky sauce. Refrigerator-stable for a week or freeze.
• Rhubarb syrup. Cook chopped rhubarb with sugar and water until soft, strain. Use in cocktails (rhubarb gin tonic), spritzes, or over yogurt.
• Rhubarb chutney. Acidified and water-bath safe (tested recipes).
• Share. Rhubarb gardeners are notorious for trying to give it away. Find someone making strawberry jam — they’ll thank you.

Next steps

• Read the water-bath canning pillar for the broader method.
• Strawberry jam — the natural June companion.
• Why didn’t my jam set? — the troubleshooting.
• SNAP lids reuse rules before you buy your second box.
• Garlic scape pickles — the other late-June project.