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 S
trawberry 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.... |
