Making jam for the 1st time this year. Anyone got a good strawberry jam recipe?

I don't like to get too "fancy" with strawberry jam. When I open it it December I really want to

smell and taste the berries. This is the recipe I used but I put in a little more lemon juice and leave out the zest.

A little hint: When the jam reaches the right consistency and you take it off heat, stir it to cool it for about 5 min. That way all the fruit doesn't float to the top of the jar.

Classic Strawberry Jam
Adapted from Canning for a New Generation by Lisa Krissoff
Makes 4, half pint jars
What You’ll Need
3 Pounds rinsed, hulled and diced strawberries
1 1/2 C sugar
3 Tbsp strained fresh lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons (optional)
Place strawberries and sugar in a preserving pan and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for about 5 minutes to draw all of the lovely juices out. Pour into a colander and set over a large bowl. Once drained, pour only the juices back into the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for about 20 minutes or until the juice has reduced to approximately 1 1/2 cups stirring occasionally.
Carefully place your drained strawberries and any additional juice that accumulated in your bowl as well as your lemon zest (if using) and lemon juice. Bring jam to a simmer and let simmer for about 15 minutes or until your jam has set stirring frequently.
Place jam into sterilized jars, and process in a hot water bath canner for 5 minutes. Let cool on the counter for at least 12 hours.

 
I am with Cyn on this one. I like to just make plain strawberry jam.

One hint I will give you is to skim all that foam off that will rise to the surface. I have a love-hate relationship with strawberry jam because I am fanatical about getting all the foam off. You are left with a beautiful clear red jam. Other fruit don't seem to have as much foam as strawberry. I don't know why that is. Have fun!

 
Try about 1/2 teaspoon of butter to help lessen foaming and remember. . .

Remember you don't need much fat to lessen the foam AND you can eat the foam; it's like fluffy sweet strawberries so store it in an extra container in the fridge. You just want to skim the foam before processing/canning.

 
I've done a few variations, Strawberry Rhubarb, Strawberry-Black Pepper & Mint and SB Curd, not to

mention your basic strawberry. I usually add about 1/2 teaspoon of butter to the mix but frankly after making thousands of jars, I really don't notice a difference plus, the fat in the jar eventually contributes to bacterial growth, a bane of the home canner.

Here are some of the recipes I've used, if you're interested:

Basic Strawberry Jam
from Saving the Season. Yield 1.5 pints.

2 ½ lbs STRAWBERRIES, about 3 punts from the market
2 cups GRANULATED SUGAR (about 14 oz)
1 tablespoon MEYER LEMON JUICE
zest from ¼ MEYER LEMON

Quickly rinse berries. Do not soak or waterlog! Strawberries require minimal prep: remove cap and quarter each berry. Put trimmed berries in a bowl with lemon juice, zest and sugar, then stir. Macerate for an hour, allowing the sugar to draw water from the berries.

Turn fruit-sugar mixture into a preserving pan and bring to a boil over high flame, stirring constantly. Once it reaches a full, rolling boil—which is to say, a boil that can't be stirred down—moderate heat just enough to prevent a boil-over. Without ceasing to stir for a moment, continue boiling until the mixture is reduced to the gel point. It should take less than 10 minutes. Once sufficiently reduced, skim and ladle into prepared half-pint jars.

Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.


Rhubarb–Strawberry Jam
Saveur | August 2009. Makes 3 cups.

5 cups RHUBARB (about 1 ¼ lbs), cut into ¾ "x ½” cubes
2 cups hulled and quartered STRAWBERRIES (about ½ lb)
2 ¼ cups SUGAR
1 Tbsp FRESH LEMON JUICE

Combine the ingredients in a 4 quart saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb breaks down and the jam has thickened, about 1 hour.

To determine whether jam has set, place a small spoonful on a chilled plate; if the dollop of jam holds firm and doesn't get runny around the edges, it is ready for canning. If it runs, continue to cook for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, submerge three 8oz canning jars, along with their lids and ring bands, in a large pot of boiling water and sterilize over high heat for 10 minutes. Transfer sterilized jars, lids, and bands to a clean dish towel. Fill each jar with hot jam, leaving at least ¼" of space at the top. Wipe jar rims with a clean dish towel, place lids on jars, and secure ring bands.

Transfer filled jars to a canning rack; place rack in a pot of gently boiling water so that jars are submerged by at least 1"; let boil for 10 minutes. Transfer jars, set at least 1" apart, to a dish towel and let cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. To test that jars have properly sealed, unscrew bands and lift each jar by the edge of the lid; if the lid holds, the jar is sealed. If it loosens, jar is not fully sealed, and jam should be refrigerated and used within 2 weeks. Sealed jars will keep, in a cool, dark place, for up to a year.


Strawberry, Ground Pepper & Fresh Mint Jam
(adapted from Mes Confitures)

2 lbs STRAWBERRIES, weighed after washed, hulled & halved
1 ½ lb SUGAR (about 3 ½ cups)
1 LEMON ZEST and JUICE
8 FRESH MINT LEAVES, hand shredded
8 BLACK PEPPERCORNS, freshly ground

In a ceramic bowl, add the strawberries, lemon zest and juice, and sugar. Fold together just to mix and cover with parchment paper and let macerate overnight in the refrigerator.

Next day, bring the preparation to a simmer in a preserving pot or large saucepan. Stir gently to dissolve all sugar for about 5 minutes. Strain through a sieve and hold the fruit separately while you return the syrup to the pan and bring to a boil, cooking on high til concentrated at 221º F on a candy thermometer.

Add the fruit back into the pot with the mint and ground pepper. Return to boil for about 5 minutes, stirring gently. Check the set.

Fill sterilized jars, immediately, and close with lids. Boil in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove carefully to a rack to cool and seal. Do not move jars for 24 hours to secure the seal.

Strawberry Curd
The exquisite strawberry flavor is dazzling. It's perfect for enjoying on toast, as a cheesecake topping, stirred through whipped cream, as a sponge cake filling or drizzled over breakfast crepes. Strawberry curd makes a wonderful food gift and lasts up to two months in the refrigerator.

1lb STRAWBERRIES, washed, hulled & halved
3½ oz WHITE GRANULATED SUGAR
2 oz SALTED BUTTER, roughly chopped
2 LARGE EGGS, beaten

Place strawberries plus 2 Tbsp of water in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Cover and bring to the boiling point. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the strawberries are really soft.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer strawberries to mesh sieve. Place sieve over a clean, heatproof bowl and use the back of a spoon to push strawberries through the mesh sieve. Keep pressing the pull through. Add the pulp into the strained strawberry liquid.

Place the heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water on medium heat. Make sure the bowl fits snugly and that the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Add the sugar, beaten eggs and butter to the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter melts. Continue to stir constantly for about 10 minutes.

Turn the heat up and continue to stir for another 10 minutes. It's important to keep stirring otherwise the mixture could curdle.

Stir for another few minutes or until the mixture thickens. Turn off the heat and stir again. Carefully pour mixture into hot sterilized jars and seal. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

 
My favorite variation is Strawberry -Tarragon, even my tarragon-phobic friend(more)

loves this.
You do not "taste" the tarragon, but it adds a richness and brightness to the strawberry taste.

 
Can you tell me, what's the role of sugar? If you cut back on it, besides sweetness, what does it do

to the texture?

We'll be working with a variety of berry (Shuksan) that is incredibly sweet and I anticipate using much less sugar for the jam.

These berries are so sweet that we were instructed to "use by sundown" because once picked, they basically macerate in their own juices. They have an intense "strawberry" flavor and most the crop is typically bought up by Haagendaz.

 
Traca, please read the Russ Parsons article within, very good advice/instructions. . .

for small batch, low sugar jams.

Sugar acts in concert with a fruit's acid and natural pectin to make a jam/jelly jell, and hold it's shape without being syrupy or runny. Too much or too little acid or sugar or over-ripe fruit with throw this balance off and will make a runny, or loose or not-jelled jam. When you boil all the fruit, juices and sugar together you reach a jelly-ing point (which I cannot remember).

According to Mr. Parsons it is possible to use a LOT less sugar to make jam than is used traditionally. Read on for a really good article that I saved from the Los Angeles Times:

Jam Small Batch, NO Pectin

California Cook: Making jam in small batches (with big pleasure)
Quick ways to turn small amounts of fruit into jam while indulging your spontaneous, experimental side.

By Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times

August 5, 2010


And so now I'm reading that jam-making has become a favored pastime of the culinary adventurers. That's great — there are few things that make breakfast sweeter than spooning homemade preserves onto a piece of toast. But I can't help wondering how long this boom will last once we get into the really thick heat of summer. Standing and stirring a big pot of boiling fruit will take the starch out of even the most enthusiastic cook.

Not to worry, I've got a solution — you just need to think small.

The problem with most jam-making instructions is that they are not intended for you and me. They're artifacts of a time when jam-making was a necessity, not a pleasure. If you're a farm wife who has to put up the fruit from three or four trees, then recipes that call for five or 10 pounds of peaches and a really big vat to cook them in make sense.



But that's not why most of us make jam these days. We buy fruit from the farmers market or supermarket, and we get only a couple of pounds at a time. We make jam because it tastes so good. And because it's fun.

You may find yourself gasping at that last remark if you've ever spent a hot summer night sweating over a big batch of peach preserves (I remember one 120-degree evening at Mas Masumoto's orchard outside Fresno doing just that).

But there's a better way. I learned the secret of making small batches of jam years ago from my dear friend Sylvia Thompson, a terrific cookbook writer.

Here's how the technique goes: Cut up the fruit and weigh it. Add an equal weight of sugar. Bring it to a boil on top of the stove and then let it sit overnight to macerate. The next day, finish the jam a couple of cups at a time in a nonstick skillet. Cooked over medium-high heat, it'll set in less than five minutes.

That's all there is to it. Last weekend I turned 2 pounds of nectarines into jam in less than 30 minutes of total work. What's more, because I couldn't figure out what sounded best as an accent flavoring — lemon verbena, rose geranium or basil — I made one batch of each. (For what it's worth, I'm still undecided: All of them are delicious. Obviously, more testing and tasting are required.)

Because the fruit cooks more quickly in small amounts, the flavor of the jam stays fresher. You also use less sugar than commercial jams, so the flavor is more about the fruit than the sweet (instead of 50% sugar by weight, commercial products must contain more than 55% sugar just to legally be called jam).

This technique uses no additional pectin, which results in a slightly softer, more natural set, and it's easier to tell when you have reached the proper moment of setting when you're stirring a skillet with only a couple of cups, rather than a pot of several quarts.

Cooking jam in small amounts also leads to greater spontaneity — you can indulge a whim rather than having to plan jam-making as a daylong project. And when you're cooking this way, you can feel free to experiment, combining different fruits or flavors.

Finally, because you're making jam in such small quantities, you can simply refrigerate it rather than going through the canning process necessary for storing in the pantry.

I've been making jam this way for many years now, but even the most tried-and-true recipes can hold a surprise or two. This year's "learning moment" came from a mistake (as so many do). The first batch I made this summer, I weighed the nectarines before pitting rather than after and the result was way too sweet.

This surprised me because it doesn't seem as though pits should weigh enough to throw off the equation by that much. But then I wondered: If the addition of that small amount of extra sugar can make that big a difference in flavor, what if I went the other way and tried using less sugar?

To find out, I made three batches of nectarine jam (see, I told you it allowed spontaneity), and instead of using half sugar by weight, I used 45%, 40% and 35% (for non-math majors, that works out to two, 13/4 and 11/2 cups of sugar per pound of cut-up fruit).

Surprisingly, all three worked, though the cooking time and the final set was slightly different for each. The less sugar you use, the softer the jam will be and the longer it will take to set.

With equal weights fruit and sugar, the nectarine jam sets up about like a high-quality commercial product (not eraser-stiff, but mounding nicely in a spoon). By the time I got to 35% sugar, the final set was softer and slightly flowing — certainly not like a syrup, but more like an old-fashioned "spoon sweet."

Also, beyond a certain point I found that reducing the sugar didn't improve the flavor that much. To my taste, the 45% batch made with 2 cups of sugar was just about the perfect balance of fruit flavor and sweetness. (For what it's worth, when Chris Kimball of Cook's Illustrated tested the technique, he got successful sets with as little as 11/4 cups of sugar — 30% by weight.)

How do you know when the jam has set? First, you'll feel it. While stirring the jam, you'll feel the texture change from light and liquid to heavier and smoother.

But the surest way is by watching the way the jam falls from the stirring spoon. When you first start cooking the jam, it will come off in one stream, like water. When it's almost ready, it'll fall off in multiple streams, but still slightly liquid. Cook it 30 seconds or so more and you'll notice that a sheet begins to form at the base of the spoon. That's the moment.

Remove the jam immediately from the heat and pour it into the storage containers. If you taste now (Careful! It's blistering hot), you'll find that the texture will have a slight cooked-sugar stickiness and the jam will seem too loose. Chill it for a couple of hours and you'll see that it will have set up perfectly and the stickiness will be gone.

Because different fruits contain different amounts of pectin, you may need to play around a bit. I've used this technique successfully for peaches, plums and nectarines and for strawberries.

Furthermore, with almost all jams, you're better off using fruit that is slightly under-ripe rather than over (ignore those signs that proclaim "ideal for canning"). Under-ripe fruit is higher in pectin and, while it may be a little lower in sugar, that's not really a problem with jam, is it? When I'm sorting fruit to make jam, I usually set any truly ripe fruit aside to make pie.

Just last night I found we had an unexpected surplus of blackberries for breakfast (both my wife and I had bought them on separate runs to Trader Joe's … does that ever happen to you?). I took a pound of them, heated them with sugar and let them sit. This morning I made a couple of cups of jam.

Although those berries can be a little bland raw, when they're cooked with sugar and a bit of lemon juice, a much fuller, more nuanced flavor comes through.

Good, but I can't help thinking about adding a little slivered fresh ginger to it. Or maybe mixing up blackberries and raspberries. Boy, wouldn't that rose geranium be good?

Give me a minute and we'll find out.









Perfumed Nectarine Jam

Servings: About 5 cups

2 pounds pitted, cut-up nectarines

13/4 pounds sugar (about 4 cups)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon chopped lemon verbena (or 2 teaspoons chopped basil or 1 teaspoon chopped rose geranium)

1. In a large, heavy-bottom pot, stir together the nectarines and sugar until thoroughly combined. Warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is liquid and flowing. Bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and set aside for at least 8 hours to give the fruit time to macerate. If you're going to leave it for more than a day, refrigerate after 8 hours.

2. When you're ready to finish the jam, ladle two to two-and-a-half cups of fruit and syrup into a nonstick skillet and place over medium-high heat. Add the lemon verbena and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture falls from the side of a spoon or spatula in sheets, or until a drop of the mixture spooned onto an ice cold plate gels and is firm, about 3 to 5 minutes (add 2 to 3 minutes if the mixture has been refrigerated).

3. Spoon the mixture into a container and refrigerate until ready to use. If you prefer to can traditionally, follow the instructions from the jar manufacturer.

4. Repeat with remaining fruit and syrup.

Each tablespoon: 43 calories; 0 protein; 11 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 11 grams sugar; 0 sodium.

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

 
Mistral, terrific article! Thank you. Now if I wanted to can that jam, what would I do differently?

 
I think that foaming is more of a problem when you use package pectin. . .

Jam made with commercial packaged pectin cooks so fast that there seems to be more air in the product, it has not boiled out.

Traditionally made jam cooks for a longer time and just does not seem to foam as much to me. I just made a big traditional batch of a spiced banana jam and the stuff really did not foam once it got to the jell point (passed the sheet test, cold plate test).

 
A friend of mine shared this recipe: Eugenia Bone's Strawberry Balsamic Jam

Strawberry Balsamic Jam from Eugenia Bone’s Well-Preserved

INGREDIENTS:

8 cups washed and hulled strawberries (about 1 1/2 pounds, halved if large)
5 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter
5 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

Pour the strawberries into a large, deep, heavy pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once the strawberries are boiling, add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved. The sugar tends to burn on the bottom, so keep it moving until it is thoroughly dissolved. Bring to a boil and then add the butter. (The addition of butter keeps the foam volume down.) Turn the heat down to medium low and boil the jam gently for 40 minutes, until thickened to a loose, soft jam. Stir in the balsamic vinegar.

Bring 6 half-pint jars and their bands to a boil in a large pot of water fitted with a rack. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove the jars with tongs (the tongs don’t need to be sterilized). Simmer new lids in a small pan of hot water, to soften the rubberized flange. When the jars are dry but still hot, use a slotted spoon to fill the jars with the strawberries, leaving 1/2 to 3/4 inch of headspace. Wipe the rims, set on the lids, and screw on the bands fingertip tight. You will probably have leftover juice. You can water bath can the syrup the same way you do the jam, refrigerate it for around 3 days, or discard it.

Place the jars on a rack in a big pot and add enough water to cover the jars by 3 inches. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to medium and gently boil the jars for 10 minutes. Remove the cover and then, after about 5 minutes, remove the jars. Allow them to rest on a dish towel for 6 hours. Check the seals and store in a cool, dark place for up to a year. Refrigerate after opening.

Servings: 6 half-pints

 
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