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A Kinda Strawberry Jam Day...

I guess it's time to make strawberry jam. There is one lonely bag of frozen strawberries sitting at the bottom of my freezer. It seems such a waste to just chuck the bag out when you've grown them yourself....Last time (a season or so ago) I used Jam Sugar to make Strawberry Jam. You just use the still frozen strawberries and add Jam Sugar to the pot. Not very hard at all......

This batch was given away at Xmas...
This time for my jam making there was no Jam Sugar and I know strawberry jam can be difficult to set. So to avoid this I bought a packet of Jam Setting Mix. Though I had one problem you needed 1.7kg of defrosted fruit and I only had 1kg...

In the end I decided not to take the chance and make my strawberry jam using 1kg berries and 1kg of white sugar, plus a squeeze of lemon juice. I have plenty of glass jars, I've been collecting Craigs jam jars for a while now......

Although there are other ways to sterilize jam jars, I do it the old fashioned way by placing the jars and lids in a saucepan full of water. Bring this to a rolling boil for about 10 minutes. I also sterilize my jug and tongs in there too.

My Strawberry Jam Recipe:
1 kg of white sugar
1 kg of Strawberries
1 whole Lemon (squeeze to use juice)

Cooking time is approximately 45 minutes, but I just cook till the jam is a gel like consistency and the saucer test shows the jam forming a skin.
Tips:
When freezing strawberries hull them ready for jam making. You can do this with a knife and I did see somewhere you can use a straw to hull and remove the core (must try that myself).
Always sterilize anything that has contact with the jam making process.
Use a saucer to test a small spoonful of jam to see if it is ready.


I defrosted the strawberries, usually I cook them frozen
for jam making. So I wasn't sure if this was going to
work out...What if the jam didn't set?
Who froze the strawberries with their stems still on?
I used a strainer and knife to remove the greenery and
core....not an easy job but I managed it.
Sterilizing my jars and lids in a big pot and cooking the
 defrosted strawberries...I mashed them  down with
the potato masher while cooking
1 kg of white sugar to add to the 1 kg
 of cooked strawberries
Bubble, bubble toil and trouble.....
I hope this Strawberry Jam works out!
Testing my jam to see if it is ready yet. I always look
to see if it has formed a skin when I tip he saucer
slightly...
Using a small piece of butter to dissolve scum...
You can scrape it off too with a spoon if you
 don't want to use butter
Testing again just to make sure it has thickened
I do make a mess when pouring my jam
into the sterilized jam jars
Just have to scrape the rest of the jam out...
Put the left over jam in a dish to eat...YUM!
It tastes so nice so much better than shop bought...
Out of my 1kg of de-frosted strawberries I made
four jars of jam with a tiny bit left over
Testing again to see how thick my strawberry jam is....
Yes the jam was thick enough. When I tipped
 the heart dish the jam stayed against the side
of the dish....

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