Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Strawberry Jam

I had never made jelly er jam before. So how come I tried to do so now?  Let me set the stage a bit, we had run out of the jelly from the store,and strawberries were on sale for cheap so I had a bunch.  I knew there had to be something I could do to avoid going to the store just for jelly and use those strawberries before they turned into a pile of green mush.  So, did some research...

I found this recipe. It was super simple and best of all didn't use pectin!

This is the recipe as written...

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled
  • 4 cups white sugar
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions

  1. In a wide bowl, crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don't bother with processing, and just refrigerate.
And my changes...

I used my potato masher and smashed the strawberries.  I don't have a food thermometerso I just winged it, cooked it and cooked it until I thought it may be done.  I figured the worst thing that could happen was it would be a little runny.

So I sterilized me jelly jar by boiling it like one of the reviewers suggested.

I don't know what a water bath is so I just turned it upside down and allowed it to seal.  (Guess I should learn more about what a water bath is.)

The verdict, it was great!  Husband's words were  it's different, but it's better than the stuff from the store.  I'll take that endorsement!

 

2 comments:

  1. why do you not want to use pectin? How did the jam set up? is it like gel or more like syrup? A water bath is basically a big pot that you fill with water and place your jars in so that the water covers the top of the jars... then you let it boil for how ever long the recipe calls for. Good job for making use of your berries. I hope you enjoy your jam. :-)

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  2. I don't know what pectin is. It set up great, ot was just like the jelly/jam you get at the grocery store. Not like a syrup at all. I need to learn more about water baths, my Mom was saying I shouldn't only use actual canning jars in water baths. The jam was SO good!

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