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Strawberry Jam recipe
Hi all! I’ve been asked for my jam recipe. Glad to oblige! I do a hot-water-bath canning, following the instructions in the Ball Blue Book, which is the home canners “bible.” You can get a lot of canning supplies at www.homecanning.com, and I heartily recommend the Blue Book (which I even saw at Wal-Mart the other day!). The Basics kit at that website is a good one…. an outlay at first, but SO worth it to get the jar-grabbers, blue book, proper canning pot, etc., all at once.
I prefer Pomona’s Universal Pectin, which is usually found in health and natural food stores. I like it because you can use either honey or lower amounts of sugar, so that you taste the berries, not just “sweet.” In the box you get two packets, one of pectin and one of powdered calcium. Using their instructions, you make “calcium water” (1/2 tsp. of calcium powder per half cup of water).
Mash / chop 4 cups of berries. Place in heavy pan (I used our second-hand Le Creuset enameled iron pot on low to medium heat); add 2 tsp. calcium water and heat to boiling.
Most pectins require an equal amount of sugar, so 4 cups sugar for 4 cups berries…erg. Pomona’s has you use 3/4 to 2 cups for 4 cups of berries depending on sweetness. I used about 1 1/4 cups per recipe since the berries were nice and ripe. Measure sugar into bowl and stir in 2 tsps. pectin.
When fruit reaches boiling, stir in sugar/pectin mix. If, after mixing, it is still a little tart, add a bit more sugar. Allow to reach boiling again.
Meanwhile, have lids and rings in a saucepan of simmering water to sterilize, and boil your canning jars (do NOT re-use commercial jars–they are single-use only and can shatter if re-heated again!) also to sterilize. Just before the jam comes to a boil the second time, remove the jars from the hot water bath to ready for filling.
I set the jam pan on a hotpad next to the jars (which are set on a rack), and use a wide-mouth funnel to fill the jars to 1/4″ from the top. The proper amount of headspace is important for avoiding bacterial contamination and getting a proper vacuum seal. If the strawberry jam is foamy on top, which it usually is, take a dollop of butter on a fork and swirl it around the top to cut the foam (which looks icky but is actually OK to consume). Ladle into jars. If need be, clean drips from the top edge of the glass jar and place new lid on top, then screw down sealing ring. (You can’t re-use a lid…must have virgin rubber ring on it to get a proper seal).
Place jars in hot water bath for about 20 minutes after the water returns to a boil. The fruit in the jam will rise to the top of the jars…when you open a jar up, just stir and mix it back up.
Allow jars to cool, then remove the rings! If jam has oozed out, wipe clean. Make sure the lid “pops” and “sucks down” to make a vacuum seal (so as not to poison yourself with spoiled jam!). If the lid doesn’t seal, remove the lid, try a new one and hot-water bath again (I only had this happen once in 47 jars), or just pop that one in the fridge to use first.
That’s it!
For other jams, you can get fancy. Blueberries need an acidifier, so instead of lemon juice, try lime…yum! And the Ball Blue Book recipe for Plum jam in the “fancy jams” is heavenly. I made Shiro plum (yellow plums) with zest from Clementines and Mandarine Napoleon liqueur once…definitely not for PB&Js….. great on fresh biscuits!
Thanks for asking! In about two weeks, maybe raspberry jam!
July 12th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Sarah,
I have been using Pomona’s Pectin for a couple of years now, and LOVE it. I usually use 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar to 1 cup of fruit, unless the fruit is tart, in which case I’ll go up to as much as 1/2 cup of sugar. But instead of canning my resulting jam, I put it in my freezer. I find a defrosted jar of jam stays good up to a month in the ‘fridge (tho it NEVER lasts that long), and spreading it on my home made bread every day for breakfast is like eating fresh fruit all year long.
Our property is over run with wild blackberries, so that is the jam I make the most. Often I’ll put about half of the fruit through a food mill to get rid of the seeds, and then make my jam. Fewer seeds and a more concentrated taste. If I’m really overwhelmed with fruit, I’ll freeze both puree and whole berries and make the jam later. (Especially nice to make some in late December for holiday gifts.) I’ve also had good luck making jam from frozen prepped peaches and concord grapes from my neighbor’s garden. Still looking for a source of raspberries…guess I’ll have to plant some.
If you REALLY get into jam making, you can order the pectin in a 1/2 pound package from Pomona’s website. Comes with the calcium powder and everything.
Enjoy the taste of summer all year round!