Strawberry Jam or Preserves

[Mygrandmeresgarden]

A simple freezer jam recipe I found on the Canadian Living site

Did you try the reduced sugar one? the regular one? Both?

I have tried the regular one. I will be using the reduced sugar one and if it's not sweet enough will try adding stevia which I can get at the health food store. Some health food stores also have the straight pectin in a powder form and you can use a lot less sugar also. I love freezer strawberry jam! When I lived in BC, we use to pick gallons and make tons of this jam...still my fav jam.

[Dumbo]

ok. Thanks.

Will try the regular one.

[Eeyore]

My Mom just freezes her's in regular margarine containers. I no longer make jam of any kind. We just don't eat enough to make it worth while.

[Heidi S]

I don't have access to any quantity of great, local strawberries sadly, so I am not sure what is the best for them or have ever made strawberry jam. My mom-in-law does though, and always makes freezer jams.

However, I grow my own raspberries and make freezer jam regularly. My guys devour it. But, I don't make it when I harvest, I just freeze them in containers, and thaw them to make jam as we need it, one batch at a time. I can also use them for other things, like muffins, cakes, fruit crumbles etc.

The secret to keeping the berries loose and easily used for a variety of things is to freeze them individually - I use cookie sheets with a single layer of berries. Once frozen I move them into hard freezer containers, and put a sheet of lightly crumpled wax paper over the top. The reason for the wax paper is to reduce the frost layer that always accumulates. I just find the product keeps better this way.

This is the system my 84 yr-old mom-in-law taught me when I first joined the family - she has always made freezer jams for her family and I was very unfamiliar with it. We just use the liquid Certo pectin and follow the recipe. I like to use the recipe with lemon juice too; it makes it taste better!

[Dumbo]

Eeyore.. yeah Think I buy 5 jars of jam a year for one of the kids. it's not a big mover here either. But if it comes out half decent maybe they will go for it more. Or maybe they will put it on a spoon and fling it at my head... who knows.

Raspberry and blueberry season is in a few weeks I think, will try it with those as well.

I came across some pre world war 2 recipes. Basically any recipe that contains no pectin is likely pre world war 2.

So I decided to try a freezer batch, one hot-pack with pectin and one hot-pack w/o pectin. Not sure if i'll use the pressure canner or the regular hot-water method yet.

I've been reading liquid pectin makes jams taste better. Again I never saw this before (or noticed), so I'll have to look around. The two places that I think carry the most in canning/preserves accessories is Walmart and Canadian tire (of all places), so those will be the two stores i hit tomorrow to see what they have pectin wise.

Also, Lemon juice... Do you buy fresh lemon and squeeze it? Or do you buy that concentrated lemon juice in a yellow lemon shaped container?

[Heidi S]

Marc, I use the bottled stuff for convenience, but I don't bother with those little fake lemons - I just get the bottles. I use it to keep fruit from browning, in baking etc. I love fresh lemons, but gad zooks they are a bit dear around here.

[B_BQ]

Good luck with whsatever method you use Marc, and let us know.

Two fruits high in natural pectin are quince and apples. I had a small quince tree at my last house and always made quince jelly. If I was making jam at the time I would always pop a quince in with the other fruit.

Fresh lemons always here. Nothing goes to waste as I like to zest the lemons too. The zest keeps well in a ziploc baggie in the freezer. I think fresh makes a difference and whenever lemon juice is called for I always put some zest in too!

~BBQ

[Dumbo]

Yeah a few recipes I looked over said to add zest. How much would you put? A teaspoon per 8-cups of crushed berries? a lot of stuff I looked over is old, they just say add zest and give no measure.

Anyhow this is what I'll be doing tonight:

No Pectin Old Fashioned Strawberry Jam
(added a comparison from then and now just for history sake):

Old fashioned Pre-WW2 Strawberry Jam (US dept of agriculture)
Makes about eight 8-ounce (250 mL) jars
8 cups crushed hulled strawberries 2L
6 cups granulated sugar 1.5 L

Notice the "no lemon". Today, for canning, they add acid to prevent food poisoning, or to prevent preserves from possibley going bad.

Also, in the old fashioned (pre-ww2 recipes) they call for 1/2 ripe and 1/2 non-ripe strawberries) because they state that non-ripe strawberries have more pectin in it and causes a better jelling.

So in effect, this was grandma's secret.

Updated old fashion (Bernadine book):

8 cups crushed hulled strawberries 2L
6 cups granulated sugar 1.5 L
1/3 cup (75ml) lemon juice.

No change aside from Lemon.

So this is my old fashioned strawberry jam recipe I will use.

The "new" old fashioned method only calls for ripe strawberries. If I knew about the non-ripe secret I would have picked some. Live and learn! Oh well...

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Frozen Strawberry jam.

There are a few diff recipes around with and w/o pectin. Providing I find the "light pectin", I'll try the link "Gandmere" posted above since it's by the same company that does this Canadian Gardening magazine. I'll be rough on them if the kids reject it. :p
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Pectin Strawberry Jam

Not sure what I'll try yet. Wasted my time on discovering the role of pectin in food science. I swear, each time I touch something garden related it ends up requiring 15 books of research. I should have taken up ant farming.

I may just stick with the standard Bernadine recipe w/ standard pectin. Or I may freeze some like Heidi stated. Will see how the first two batches go first.

Now to make my shopping list...

[Dumbo]

BTW, BBQ, I went to the Bernadine website a few minutes ago, http://www.bernardin.ca/. The first thing on the front page is....

Recipe of the week:
Strawberry Balsamic Jam

How about that!
lol So since I have everything for this, guess I'll do it.

[B_BQ]

Marc: Re how much lemon zest - I would say if you making 2-lbs strawberry jam you would use the zest of a whole lemon, plus the juice!

This is a very simple Strawberry Jam recipe put out on 'All Recipes'. It sounds perfect for a beginner. It doesn't use as much sugar either; also no pectin!

~BBQ

Strawberry Jam

By: Katharine
"This is by far the easiest recipe I have found for strawberry jam without using a pectin. The jam is soft, spreadable and delicious."
Rate/Review | Read Reviews (380)

Prep Time:
20 Min Cook Time:
20 Min Ready In:
40 Min
Servings (Help)

USMetricCalculate

Original Recipe Yield 5 cups

Ingredients

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

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.

Footnotes:

To test for jelling: Place three plates in a freezer... after about 10 minutes of boiling place a tsp of the liquid of the jam onto the cold plate. Return to freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate... if it doesn't try to run back together (if you can make a line through it with your finger) it's ready to be canned!