Strawberry jam

Strawberry jam, I totally get why people make you from scratch. You're a lot of work and you cause a small amount of anxiety during the canning process, but I get it. You're just so good. Brace yourselves for a long post, y'all. Jam is a process!

BIG DISCLAIMER: I'm not a canning professional. I recommend doing more research at sites that can advise you properly on food safety (like the National Center for Home Food Preservation) before attempting to make jam yourself. I wanted to share my experience with you though, so this might be a good place to start, if you want to think about making jam yourself someday soon. Are we good? We're clear that I'm no expert on preserving food? Awesome. Read on . . . 



You know that episode of Friends? "The One with the Jam"? Of course you do. Monica has a jam plan to get over her man. She makes vats of jam, taking control of her time in an attempt to forget her boyfriend and get a handle on her career. Needless to say, a "jam plan" isn't, like, the most practical thing. But, I totally understand why she'd latch onto doing something she's good at while everything else in her life feels....off. I don't know that I have a "jam plan" comparable to Monica's yet, but I'm working on it.

I have always been intimidated by the canning and preserving process. I still am, because the three and a half pints of jam I made are currently residing in my fridge. I canned them properly, following all the steps to get a solid seal on the jam jar lids, but still. I'd hate for it mold or for someone to get sick eating my jam. This is my first jam session (Ha. Ha. Ha.) so I'm going to place it safe.

I started with a whole mess of strawberries.

I hulled them using the straw trick I saw on tumblr or Reddit or somewhere. Not super time-efficient, but, I had fun and I think it saved a little more of the strawberry than when you cut off the tops.

After that, I placed them on a brimmed baking sheet and mashed them to a pulp with a potato masher. I suppose you could do this with a food processor, but mashing them myself was really satisfying.

I scooped the mashed berries into a large pot, along with the juice from one big lemon and the pectin. Next time, I'll try jam without pectin, but I didn't want to screw up my first batch of jam. Heaven forfend!

I stirred it all together and put it on the stove over high heat. As the strawberries began to cook, I dumped seven cups of sugar into the pot and stirred it all in. I kept stirring until all the sugar was dissolved and then let it come to a raging boil, skimming the pink foam off the top of the strawberries from time to time. The foam is fine to eat, but it makes the jam cloudy, which is a bad thing, based on all the jam posts I read on other blogs. I let the jam boil for a couple of minutes and then turned the heat down to medium, letting it cook on the stove for about twenty minutes or so.

 While this jam was being cooked, I got out my stock pot (the biggest pot I had) and filled it with water. I set the water to boiling and placed my jam jars in the boiling water for about 20-30 minutes, because I was paranoid about sterilizing the lids and jars.

When the jam was ready, I fished a jar and lid out of the boiling water and filled it with jam, tightly sealing the jar. I repeated this with two more pint-sized jars and one that was only half a pint in size (half-pint-sized? half pint-sized? Grammar nerds, help!). I also made sure to wipe the rims of the jars off with a paper towel before screwing on the lids, leaving no jam on the outside of the jar. If you leave residue on the rims, your jam might not seal properly or you could wind up with black mold on the rims when you unscrew the lid. That would be seriously disgusting and heartbreaking.

When that was done I brought the water in the stock pot to another raging boil and carefully lowered the jam into the pot to "process" them for about fifteen minutes, covering the pot with a lid to keep in the heat and prevent as much of the water from evaporating as possible. The jam has to be covered with boiling water in order to effectively process. When the jam had boiled for about 15 minutes, I turned off the heat, took the lid off the pot, and let the jam sit in the stock pot for about five or ten minutes.

Then I used my tongs and fished out the jam, placing them on a clean countertop to sit for 24 hours and wait for the lids to make that popping sound that signals the jams were correctly processed and are now nicely sealed.

Well, almost 24 hours. I couldn't help myself! I had to try it. The lids all did the popping thing and were firm to the touch. Can I tell you how amazing the jam was? Because it was. So. Good.

It was also good when heated a bit and drizzled over ice cream.

And on biscuits. And straight from the spoon . . .

So, I'm not saying this was easy, but it certainly was worthwhile for me to try it. I may make jam again and experiment with crazier flavors, but just plain strawberry was pretty fantastic. Try it yourself, though I warn you that it's going to be difficult to go back to the store-bought stuff after.

I owe this recipe to Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. Her posts on making strawberry jam are well worth reading, because they'll give you all the answers about why you sterilize the jars and heat-process the jam. Here's Part I and Part II.

Next time, I may use half-pint jars, just so I have more to give out to friends. Also, you do NOT want to heat process a jar that is not full. Bad things, apparently, will happen. 

Strawberry jam
(makes about 3-4 pints)

Ingredients

5 cups mashed strawberries
juice of one lemon (and zest, if you want the jam to be lemony)
1 (49g) package of powdered pectin (I used Sure-Jell's 100% natural pectin)
7 cups sugar

Boil jars and lids in a large stock pot to sterilize them. I boiled mine for about half an hour, because I started it after I put all the jam ingredients in the other pot and it was convenient for me to leave them on the stove.

Combine the strawberries, lemon juice, and pectin in a large pot. Put the pot over high heat on the stove top and the sugar in the pot, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Allow the jam to come to a great boil (one that stirring doesn't get rid of) and let it boil for a couple minutes or so, stirring to prevent it from burning. Lower the heat to medium and let the jam cook for another twenty minutes or so, stirring it every five minutes or so to prevent burning. Skim off the pink foam forming on the top of the jam. Turn off the heat. After a couple minutes, skim the jam one final time.

One at a time, fish the sterilized jam jars and their lids out of the boiling water, tipping the water out of the jar. Fill the jars with jam, leaving about one-quarter of an inch at the top. Screw the lid on the jar tightly. Repeat until all of the jam is gone (or all your jars are filled!).

Bring the water in the stockpot to a boil again and carefully place the jam-filled jars in the pot. Add more water if you have to, in order to make sure the jars are completely covered by water. Place a lid on the pot and let the jam sit in the boiling water for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn off the heat on the stove and uncover the pot. Let the jam sit in the water for about 5-10 minutes.

Remove the jam jars from the pot onto a clean dish towel, in a cool, dry part of your kitchen. If using mason jars with metal lids, the lids will make a popping sound in the next few minutes or hours (my first lid popped after ten minutes and the last took three or four hours). Leave the jars alone for 24 hours and then check the lids by unscrewing the rim of the jar and tapping the center of lid to see if it moves around. If there's no budging, then congratulations, you've successfully preserved your jam. If it does move around, no worries. Just refrigerate it and it should stay good for awhile.