Okay, this qualifies for a Meatless Monday post, but not really!!!! It has been several years since I made strawberry jam, and these batches of jam brought back fond memories. Jam in the summer is a wonderful, sweet topping for a dessert of fruit salad, or a simple cake. I have even topped a plain cookie with a little jam! Jam is also a wonderful housewarming gift for dinners out or weekends away.
No certo, no boiling to seal the lids – boiled fruit, sweetened, and lemon juice to thicken. This jam is kept in the refrigerator until consumed.
There are 2 jam recipes below – one sweetened with cane sugar and one sweetened with concentrated (frozen) white grape juice. The cane sugar has the classic sugary sweetness to it. The grape juice has a milder, less addictive sweetness. Give them a try and tell me of your experience.
Strawberry Jam
2 quarts fresh local strawberries, rinsed
2 cups organic cane sugar, unrefined
2 lemons (to make a scant 1/2 cup strained lemon juice)
After rinsing the berries, hull them (remove the green tops) and split them in half, if they are large. Otherwise leave them whole. The berries will measure out to approximately 8 cups. Pour them into your jamming pot and pour over the 2 cups of sugar. Leave to sit for 1-2 hours.
Take a potato masher and lightly mash the berries. Put the cooking pot onto the stove and heat the berries over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, let the berries simmer, uncovered. Mash the berries some more.
Simmer, stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon. There will be some frothy pink foam in the pot, that is to be expected.
After 20 minutes, add the strained lemon juice. Bring back to the boil.
Remove the pot from the heat and let the jam cool down for 10 minutes. In the meantime, rinse the chosen jam jars with freshly boiled water. Shake out as much water as possible. Now carefully fill each jar. Let the jam completely cool before covering with a lid. Refrigerate. Makes the amount of jam shown below (roughly 6 cups).
Strawberry Jam with Grape Juice
2 quarts fresh local strawberries, rinsed
11 fl oz white grape juice, thawed
2 lemons (to make a scant 1/2 cup strained lemon juice)
Follow the same instruction as above, replacing cane sugar with the grape juice. The photo below shows the boiling jam, which is even more foamy than the jam above.
Delight in the fruits of Nature and the fruits of your labor. Share with others!
Shanthi
Ok, so I basically followed this recipe, but I substituted blackberries for strawberries, and I can certify that this is truly idiot-proof. The whole endeavor, including sourcing mason jars and organic sugar, picking the blackberries, making it, labeling the jars, was one afternoon. For the attention span-challenged, this is a Good Thing. Batch 1 was exactly as above. Batch 2 involved bourbon and vanilla. This became known as Drunken Blackberry. Batch 3 had added italian basil (thank you NY Times). Thank you, thank you, thank you for the inspiration and the how to, Syd!!!!
Oh, thanks for your jamming notes and variations Hugh! This is giving me inspiration for the next jamming season, and the idea of making exotic jams!
Peace