Using Your Resources: Classic Strawberry Jam

Here in the beautiful Great Lakes Region, June normally means strawberries. This year our berries came on a little later due to the cool rainy weather we have been having, but late or not they help mark the true start of summer! With their cheery bright red color and sweet-tart taste nothing beats fresh garden strawberries!

Bring a taste of summer with you into the cooler snowy months with this timeless classic, strawberry jam recipe. Nothing beats fresh strawberry jam on top of fresh breakfast toast, pancakes or even on top of homemade vanilla bean ice cream!

Ingredients:
6 cups of crushed strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 box of powdered Fruit Pectin ‘For Less or No Sugar Needed Recipes’
Juice of ½ of a lemon (optional)
This helps the jam set, and aids in achieving a bright cheery looking finished product. If using bottled lemon juice, add approximately 1 tablespoon.
1/2 teaspoon butter OR oil of choice (optional)
This item is used to help prevent foaming, but is NOT
required to make successful jam.

Makes: 4 pints.

Note: I have doubled this recipe before with good results, but success at doubling is not always repeatable due to variations like humidity and dew point or changes in cooking due to volume of jam. Doubling is normally not recommended when making jams and jellies, if you choose double this recipe, you do so at your own risk. 🙂

Directions:
Start by prepping your jars and lids according to manufacturer’s instructions; set aside.

Wash and prep your fresh strawberries. The riper the berries used the softer the set of jam they will make.

For best overall results, I like to have a mixture of berries, riper ones for adding flavor and sweetness and a few on the medium ripeness area for helping achieve a nice thick jam set.

Smash your berries 1 or 2 cups at a time using a hand-held potato masher. You can use a blender, but I find purée does not produce as good a texture of jam. You really want to keep some of those berry chunks, which is why I find using a potato masher works best.

Measure your six cups of smashed strawberries into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan.

Measure and place 3 3/4 cups of sugar into a bowl and set aside.

Place the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar into a bowl and stir in your box of pectin until well mixed.

Combine your sugar/pectin mix with your smashed berries.

Squeeze in fresh lemon juice and add in butter/oil if using.

Place your saucepan on high heat and bring to a full rolling boil. This is where it continues to boil even while being stirred.

Sorry, the steam and my camera were not getting along. 🙂

Make sure to keep stirring so jam does not scorch. Add in remaining sugar and bring back up to a full rolling boil.

Continue boiling for 2 minutes longer. Remember to keep stirring jam constantly. Remove from heat and skim off any foam, if needed.

Working quickly, ladle jam into your clean prepped jars, leaving ½ inch headspace on top.

Wipe rims of jars and add prepared lids and rings.

Place jars into water bath canner and make sure water comes up over jars 1-2 inches.

Bring to boil and process jars in canner for 10 min. Remove from canner and let completely cool, check lids to make sure lids have sealed. (They should NOT spring back when lightly pressed.)

I found this recipe to set up rather quickly, but if yours seems slightly runny after completely cooling, just give it a little more time. Pectin jams can sometimes take up to two weeks to reach a full set.

BTW This tasted amazing on the fresh made Amish, gluten-free potato bread we were given! 🙂

Happy (Belated) Strawberry Moon, the Homesteading Hen