As you all know, when summer hits, fresh fruit is a must have in my desserts. Peaches, blueberries, strawberries, any berries, are all on the table, so it is no surprise that I have, in fact, added another fruit recipe to the blog! Fun fact about Katie—I am in love with berry picking! I will get right in the dirt, go to every single bush, fill up a dozen quarts of berries, eat maybe half of those before my few hours are over, all to come home and make too much jam for me to consume in a year.
So, it is now time for you to learn how to make super simple, dangerously delicious and mouth-watering fresh strawberry jam! Although picking your berries is more than half of the fun in this, being able to taste the oh-so-marvelous and homemade jam the next morning is quite amazing as well. Yes, a good amount of patience is required for canning, more specifically jam making, but I believe in you all!
With only 4 ingredients, all that can stop you from making the most freshly sweet strawberry jam is if you continue to eat every juicy berry that you have! Now, let's get to canning!
preparing jars
For a very long time, I used to believe that I needed to wash and then sterilize my jars before putting any jam in them. This is the way that I grew up making jam, therefore it is just what I was used to. By all means, DO this if it is what you know, but sanitizing them is not required anymore! Now, knowing better, if you simply wash all of your jars, lids and bands with hot soapy water, they will be okay to use. Why? Because you are going to be boiling all of your filled jars soon for 10 minutes, which is what you would be doing to sanitize them anyhow. Now, you have saved yourself from double sanitizing (which is fine to do if it makes you more comfortable), gained back some time, and are that much closer to some delicious, homemade jam!
ingredients
Strawberries—1 Quart, or 4 C
Sugar—12 oz, or 1 ½ C
Lemon Juice—3.5 oz, or ½ C
Fruit Pectin—1.5 oz, or ½ 3 oz CERTO packet
process
Rinse, hull and rough chop your strawberries.
Using a potato masher, crush the strawberries enough so that some of the juices come out, but there are still small pieces of the berry.
Put into a medium sized pot on medium heat with the sugar and lemon juice.
Mix in the pot to combine.
Bring the berries to a rolling boil and allow to boil for 1 full minute.
Add in the pectin, stirring for 1 full minute.
Remove from heat and scrape off any foam that is on the top of your jam.
Allow to cool for a minute or so, and then using a ladle and/or funnel, put into your clean, sanitized jars.
Bring a medium-large pot to a light boil.
Put all of your jars into the water (carefully—I always put on oven mitts for this, and use tongs!) making sure that the jars are fully covered with the water.
*Note: If you do not own a canning pot (like myself), using tin foil is a great alternative. I line the bottom with the foil and put the jars right on top of it. This keeps them from touching the bottom of the pot/not on direct heat.*
Boil for 10 minutes.
Remove from the water, again, carefully (!!), and allow them to sit, undisturbed and out of the sunlight, for at least 24 hours so that they can full seal and set.
*Note: you will know that the jar has sealed when you hear a popping sound (this is just the top of the lid popping up). If a jar has not been sucked in/popped, this means it did not seal correctly therefore you must refrigerate and use first. Don’t worry, it is still perfectly fine to eat, just will not keep for a full year!*
Bon Appétit!