How to make strawberry jam
How to make strawberry jam
Strawberry jam
Freezable
| Highlight | Nutrient | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| kcal | 35 | |
| fat | 0 g | |
| saturates | 0 g | |
| carbs | 9 g | |
| sugars | 9 g | |
| fibre | 0 g | |
| protein | 0 g | |
| low in | salt | 0 g |
Ingredients
Method
Prepare the strawberries by wiping them with a piece of damp kitchen paper. (Wiping the strawberries rather than washing them ensures the fruit doesn’t absorb lots of water – too much water and the jam won’t set easily.) To hull the fruit, use a knife to cut a cone shape into the strawberry and remove the stem. Cut any large berries in half.
Put the strawberries in a bowl and gently toss through the sugar. Leave uncovered at room temperature for 12 hrs or overnight. This process helps the sugar to dissolve, ensures the fruit doesn’t disintegrate too much and helps to keep its vibrant colour.
Before starting the jam, put 2 saucers in the freezer. Tip the strawberry mixture into a preserving pan with the lemon juice. Set over a low heat and cook very gently. If any sugar remains on the sides of the pan, dip a pastry brush in hot water and brush the sugar away.
When you can no longer feel any grains of sugar remaining, turn up the heat to start bubbling the jam and bringing it to the boil. (The sugar must be completely dissolved before increasing the heat, otherwise it will be difficult for the jam to set, and it may contain crystallised lumps of sugar.)
Boil hard for 5-10 mins until the jam has reached 105C on a preserving or digital thermometer, then turn off the heat. If you don’t have a thermometer, spoon a little jam onto one of the cold saucers. Leave for 30 secs, then push with your finger; if the jam wrinkles and doesn’t flood to fill the gap, it is ready. If not, turn the heat back on and boil for 2 mins more, then turn off the heat and do the wrinkle test again. Repeat until ready.
Use a spoon to skim any scum that has risen to the surface and discard this. Do this only once at the end, rather than constantly during the boiling stage, to reduce wastage.
Add a knob of butter, if you like, to the finished jam, and stir in to melt. This will help to dissolve any remaining scum that you haven’t managed to spoon off the top. Leave the jam to settle for 15 mins – this will ensure that the fruit stays suspended in the mixture and doesn’t all float to the top of the jam jar. Meanwhile, sterilise your jars.
Ladle into warm jars, filling to just below the rim. Place a wax disc on top of the jam (this prevents mildew forming), then cover with a lid or a cellophane circle and elastic band. Pop on a label (include the date), plus a pretty fabric top, if you like. The jam can be stored for up to 1 year in a cool, dry place. Refrigerate after opening.
RECIPE TIPS
STRAWBERRY & BLACK PEPPER JAM
Stir 1 tbsp cracked black peppercorns through the jam while it is cooling.
STRAWBERRY & TARRAGON JAM
Stir 2 tbsp chopped tarragon through the jam before ladling into jars.
STRAWBERRY & VANILLA JAM
Scrape the seeds from 2 vanilla pods into the strawberries as you toss with the sugar, then poke the scraped pods in, too. Take them out before ladling the jam into jars.
STRAWBERRY & ROSE WATER JAM
Add 2 tbsp rose water along with the lemon juice.
CHOOSE THE BEST
Use a preserving pan that is enamel-lined or made of nonreactive metal, such as stainless steel (copper is also fine). Cast-iron and aluminium pans will react with the acidity of the jam, tainting it with a metallic taste. A wide pan – big enough so that the fruit comes no more than halfway up the side – is better, as the jam will reach setting point more quickly. Also, pick slightly underripe berries, as their pectin levels will be higher. (Pectin helps the jam to set.)
How to make strawberry jam
I am not exaggerating when I say this: This strawberry jam is one of the best things you’ll ever taste. No lie. You will never, ever want to eat jam from the store again. Not only is it way better for you, because it’s fresh and doesn’t have horrible things in it like high-fructose corn syrup and weird artificial dyes, it also makes a fantastic, super-cheap, seriously impressive gift. Why? Because people love jam and, for some reason, everyone thinks making it is really hard. In reality, all you have to do is remember the number two, and you can make jam from scratch from memory forever!
1. Wash your strawberries and hull them (cut off the green part on top, so nothing but fruit remains).
2. Dump them all in your blender. Add about a cup of water.
3. Blend on high until you have liquid strawberries.
4. Pour the liquid strawberries into your saucepan. Add the two cups of sugar and the juice from one lemon. (You can squeeze the lemon by hand.)
5. Turn the stove on medium heat and boil the mixture for 30-45 minutes. Stir this often—you don’t want the jam to burn to the bottom of the pan! As you’re stirring, a strange pink foam will form on top of your jam. It tastes delicious, but you don’t want that in your jam, ’cause then it won’t be gorgeously translucent. Use a spoon to continually scoop the foam off the surface of the boiling jam, flinging it into the sink. (This is always strangely satisfying.)
6. While you’re stirring and skimming foam, wash your glass jars and lids. Fill your big stew pot with water almost to the top. Put the stove flame on high, drop your jars and lids into the water, and boil them for 10 minutes in a rolling boil. This is so we can sterilize the jars, keeping nasty things like mold from spoiling your jam.
7. You’ll know the jam is nearly ready when the color changes from light pink to a rich, deep red and the boiling noises start to sound a little…different. Instead of the wet noise of strawberry juice boiling, you’ll start to hear the jam go “blorp” and “pop.” The jam is getting thicker and losing liquid, so it’s making grosser noises. Keep stirring!
The jam is done when it’s a little more runny than you think jam should be. It’ll be slightly thinner than jam from a store—still a liquid, still pourable. We’re going to put it in the fridge later and it will set and thicken, so don’t worry.
10. Carefully take the jars out of the boiling water. Don’t touch the inside of the jars or the inside of the lids, that’s how bacteria/mold gets in! You can dump out the water into the sink and wait for the sides of the jar to be cool enough to grab and lift out, use tongs, or use a clean, folded paper towel to handle. And pour the hot jam into the jars. Fill them almost completely up to the top. Leave about a half-inch of room.
11. Put the lids on really, really tight, then flip the jars upside down on a clean kitchen towel for 10 minutes. This seals them.
After 10 minutes, put the jam jars in the refrigerator, right-side up. Your jam is ready when it’s cold, and you are going to freak out because it’s so delicious! Note: this jam will keep for about two weeks in your fridge. It will not keep on a shelf, unrefrigerated, like regular jam. We are only making fresh jam to eat, not preserving it for the winter, which is a more involved process.
Once you’ve got jam-makin’ down pat, you can screw around with the ingredients: mess with the sugar levels, add a box of blackberries, put in a bag of blenderized frozen mango slices (my favorite), add three sprigs of fresh lavender, shred up some fresh basil…you get the idea.
Get ready for the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of your life, you guys. Also: this jam is AMAZING on ice cream. There are really no words. But there are pictures.
My personal taste-testers. Clockwise from top: Jen, Kelly, and Ellen.
Strawberry Jam
A foolproof and easy Strawberry Jam recipe with step-by-step photos. Tips on how to make strawberry jam and which sugar to use when making jam.
Strawberry Jam Recipe
A homemade strawberry jam is hard to beat. When strawberries are at their peak and, hence, cheap to buy, it’s hard not to buy a large tray of them to feast on as a sweet summer dessert.
I love to buy our strawberries from the weekly farmers’ markets where the produce is always fresher and better quality. In fact, I find that the strawberries are often just at their peak when I buy them, which means they need to be devoured almost right away (usually not a problem!).
A post shared by Thanh Berthou (@eatlittlebird) on Jul 27, 2016 at 7:32am PDT
Small Batch Strawberry Jam
Quite often, the vendor will give me an extra punnet or two, usually because I am a frequent customer, but most likely because they know they can’t sell overripe strawberries the next day.
On such occasions, if we are unable to eat all of the strawberries in time, I like to make a small batch of strawberry jam.
Making jam in small batches is a quick and relatively easy process, and there is just something so reassuring about having a jar of homemade jam in the fridge.
Which Sugar to Use For Making Jam
I prefer to make jam using normal granulated sugar or caster sugar.
However, you can also use sugar with pectin added (also called “jam sugar“), and I find this sugar is most useful when you are making jam with fruit which contain low amounts of natural pectin.
Whenever I use jam sugar, I find that the resulting jam is often thicker than when made with normal sugar. However, it does take the stress out of whether the jam will set or not.
How to Make Jam Set
Pectin is the substance in fruit which makes the jam set by thickening the mixture. Some fruits contain more pectin than others, and lemon juice is often added to most jams as a way of adding pectin.
High-pectin fruits include:
Low-pectin fruits include:
If you are using low-pectin fruits in your jam, you should also add some lemon juice or perhaps mix in some high-pectin fruit to help your jam to set. Alternatively, using jam sugar with low-pectin fruit works well.
How to Make Strawberry Jam
I was once looking for a no-fuss and easy strawberry jam recipe and came across one in Bake by Rachel Allen.
Rachel Allen’s strawberry jam recipe seemed a little unusual at first, in that it requires you to first warm the sugar in the oven before adding it to the cooked fruit. This is to help keep everything at a consistent temperature and to speed up the cooking process.
While the sugar is heating in the oven, hull the strawberries and roughly chop them, especially if they are large.
To make any jam, you first need to cook down the fruit until it has softened to your liking. If you want a relatively smooth jam, cook the fruit until you have a smooth purée. If you like small bits of fruit in your jam, cook the jam for slightly less time.
Once you add the warm sugar to the cooked fruit, this will start the process of turning the mixture into a jam, during which time the fruit mixture will start to thicken.
The jam is ready when a thermometer reads 105°C (220°F), but sometimes it can be ready before it reaches this temperature, so I recommend just keeping a close eye on the jam.
You need to stir the jam frequently so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn, and you will notice that the jam will thicken substantially after boiling rapidly for about 10 minutes.
If you don’t have a thermometer, you can use the jam plate test, also called the cold plate test or wrinkle test.
While you are making the jam, simply place 3 or 4 small plates in the freezer.
To test if your jam is ready, place a spoonful of hot jam onto the cold plate, and use your finger (or a teaspoon) to run a line through the blob of jam.
If the jam starts to fill the line, this means that the jam is still too liquid and runny, and that it is not yet ready.
If the line remains and the jam does not fill the gap, then the jam has reached setting point and is ready.
More Jam Recipes
If you are looking for more jam recipes, you might also enjoy:
How To Make Homemade Strawberry Jam
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Making homemade strawberry jam is quite simple and you only need a few ingredients. You can use both fresh or frozen berries. This homemade version has a smooth texture that isn’t too stiff, with just the right amount of sweetness, not cloying at all.
Homemade jam in January? Yes! I’m here to tell you that you can make jam any time of year. Strawberry season has just about arrived here in Florida and will soon be in full blast, so for my fellow Floridians, if you go strawberry picking, you’re all set with a recipe to make jam. The rest of you don’t have to hate us while you shovel snow and bundle up against the cold, because you can make jam too and make your kitchen feel like spring at least.
When I lived in New York, our family would go strawberry picking every year and come back home with buckets and buckets of gorgeous red beauties. We would eat until we could eat no more and of course we would still be left with a huge amount of berries. Berries spoil so fast, you have to work fast, or else all that hard work will be wasted. If you’re ambitious and have extra time, you can make jam right away, but another option is to freeze the berries while they are still at their best. You can use it for smoothies all throughout the year and make jam when you have some pockets of free time in the midst of your busy life.
Since I live in an urban area and have to travel many miles to get to any strawberry patch, I have discovered an awesome way of using really fresh and ripe strawberries without spending the time and energy to pick the berries myself. I just buy a bag of frozen strawberries and it makes wonderful jam. Frozen fruits and vegetables are picked at their peak of freshness, which means they are ripe and full of flavor. Many times supermarket berries aren’t all that great – you probably know what I mean, kind of bland and watery. Since the berries are already washed and hulled, it really cuts down on prep work.
Last but not least, there’s another really special thing about this recipe – it has HALF as much sugar as most typical recipes. I know that you need a lot of sugar for the jam to set properly, but I’ve been playing around with this recipe for years now, and finally came up with a jam that isn’t cloyingly sweet. I’ve been making it this way for about 5 years now (probably more, just don’t want to unintentionally exaggerate) and it works really well. The jam sets, it’s not too sweet and my husband loves it. It’s so much better than store bought jam. I love using this jam in many recipes, especially as a filling in yeast buns, danishes, puff pastries and more commonplace ways like on toast and crepes.
Ingredients:
4 lbs strawberries (frozen or fresh)
3 1/2 cups granulated sugar
juice of 2 lemons and zest of 1 lemon (about 5-6 Tablespoons of lemon juice, you can use bottled lemon juice)
Instructions:
Cooking the Jam
Place the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Do you realize how easy this recipe is? Using frozen berries is such a time saver. No washing, hulling, slicing, etc. In most of my local grocery stores, you can find 4 lb bags of strawberries, so you don’t even have to weigh the berries. (That’s why I developed the recipe this way, to use up the whole bag.) I like to use a dutch oven, because it is wide, big and very sturdy. 
Using lemon zest is so brilliant in jam. I got this idea from Ina Garten and it gives so much flavor to the jam.
The lemon juice not only gives acidity to the jam, but also prevents the growth of bacteria in the jam. Most importantly, it has something really important – pectin. Pectin is what makes sure that the jam gels properly and isn’t a runny mess.
Cover the pot, and stirring every once in a while, bring the mixture to a boil. 
Since the berries are frozen, keep stirring everything until the sugar starts to dissolve and the berries start to melt. Soon, the sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest will be evenly distributed and coating the berries. Keep the pot covered until the berry mixture comes to a boil.
Uncover, reduce the heat to low and keep simmering the jam for 35-45 minutes. Skim the foam off the top while the berries are cooking. 
If you’re using frozen berries, it will take longer to bring the jam to a boil and take a little bit longer to reach the right consistency, since the berries are frozen and will have more liquid than fresh berries. It will take longer for the extra liquid to evaporate. If you’re using a pot that isn’t wide, it will also take longer, since the smaller the surface area, the slower the evaporation.
How Do You Know When the Jam Is Finished Cooking?
The jam is finished cooking when it has thickened and reached 215-220 degrees Fahrenheit. 
A simple test you can use if you don’t want to use a thermometer is the cold plate test. Chill a plate in the freezer before you start making jam. When the jam seems to have reached the proper consistency, place a dollop of jam on the plate and let it stand for a minute of two. It should start to gel and shouldn’t be too runny. If you run your finger through the center, it shouldn’t run back together.
When the jam is done cooking, crush the berries with the back of a spoon, a potato masher or an immersion blender. It should be really easy to do it, since the berries are really soft at this point. You can make it as chunky or smooth as you like. 
Don’t be too worried if the jam seems to be thinner than you would like, because it will become much thicker as it cools and sets. As long as you cooked it long enough and it reached 220 degrees Fahrenheit, it should be ok.
Fill sterilized jars with the jam and close with sterilized lids. Store at room temperature up to a year for best results. Refrigerate after opening.
Sterilizing the Jars
Wash the jars and lids in hot and soapy water. Then I place the glass jars in a 200 degrees Fahrenheit oven for about 15 minutes. 
In a medium pot, place the lid rings covered with water. Bring the water to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the lids. Let them stand in the boiled water until you are done canning, at least 10 minutes.
Filling the Jars With Jam
Filling the Jars With JamPour the hot jam into the hot and sterilized jars. Wipe the edges with a wet cloth to make sure they are clean. 
Place the lids on top of the jars and close with the lid rings. 
Place the jars into boiling water and make sure they are covered with water up to the top of the jars. Boil for at about 10 minutes. Take the jars out of the boiling water. Cool the jars in a towel for about 12 hours. The lid should be concave.
Storing the Jam
If you process the jars in the boiling water, you can store the jam at room temperature.
If you don’t sterilize the jars and the jam, you need to store it in a refrigerator. Store open jars of jam in the refrigerator as well. 
How to Make Strawberry Jam
Wondering how to make strawberry jam? All you need to do is boil a few ingredients you probably already have! This easy, pectin-free and lower in sugar homemade strawberry jam can also be sweetened naturally and is paleo and vegan. With a how-to recipe video.
Every year after going strawberry picking, we come home and I immediately get started making this amazing strawberry jam recipe. It’s so simple and is a great way to use up a few pounds of strawberries.
Not a fan of strawberries? Then try my honey-sweetened apricot jam! Everything I say in this post is valid for that recipe. Meaning you can also make it with maple syrup, it’s pectin-free, etc.
You can also use other types of berries or stone fruit but you’ll almost definitely have to increase the sweetener – especially for fruit that’s not too sweet, like raspberries or apricots.
Unlike most of the other strawberry jam recipes I’ve seen, this one doesn’t have an absurd amount of sugar. It’s really very little!
But keep in mind that if you don’t use sweet and flavorful strawberries, your jam isn’t going to be very good. I’ve tried this recipe with frozen strawberries, which were lacking in both taste and sweetness, and the result was almost bitter.
For two pounds of strawberries, there’s only 1/4 cup of sweetener called for so you need to use naturally sweet strawberries or add more sweetener. Other recipes use 2 pounds of strawberries and up to FOUR cups of granulated sugar!
It makes me wonder if I’m crazy and I don’t know what strawberry jam is supposed to taste like. But I promise you, this is delicious! As long as you use sweet berries. 😉
I usually use honey to sweeten this strawberry jam but for a vegan version, you can use maple syrup. I recommend using the lighter Grade A variety instead of a darker, more maple-y type so that the maple flavor doesn’t overshadow the strawberries.
If you’re worried that this homemade strawberry jam won’t taste as good as a granulated sugar-sweetened recipe (you can also use granulated sugar in this recipe, if you prefer!) – don’t be! When you mix everything together, you can taste the honey or maple. After a few minutes of boiling, all you can taste is strawberries with a lemony zing.
And don’t leave out the lemon juice! It’s necessary due to the lack of pectin. Or at least that’s what I’ve read.
Whatever I don’t eat after about a week, I freeze in 1/4 or 1/2 cup portions and use in recipes like these strawberry white chocolate cheesecake bars and strawberry oat bars. This baked strawberry French toast also looks tasty!
Questions about how to make strawberry jam?
