All spring long, i’ve been taking baby steps towards this point. The point where I make REAL jam. You know, the stuff that lives in jars and is shelf stable. The stuff you can open in the dead of winter for a bit of summer.
It started with more than a few batches of rhubarb quick jam. I kept playing and tweaking and having so much fun. I even froze some and ate it slowly out of the freezer, taking baby steps towards longer term preserving.
Then I discovered Tigress Can Jam through Tracy’s blog Sugarcrafter and I saw all the lovely jarred preserves over there. And it got me thinking. I eat a lot of jam (strawberry jam in particular–if you know me, you know I would starve during the work week if it weren’t for PBJ). Could I make my own and carry my locavore tendencies a further into the winter?
I was intrigued. I did some obsessive researching on many, many websites, including reading nearly all of the USDA canning guidelines. Noel was skeptical, perhaps because he’s seen me get really excited about projects before, only to have them fizzle out before execution.
But after some heavy lobbying, I was logging onto Amazon to order my canner and my first set of jars. Now, after two flats of strawberries and oh, 20 jars of jam, I can’t believe I didn’t start making jam sooner!
Because there really is nothing like breaking the seal of that jar and tasting some delicious homemade jam. If it’s this good now, I can’t imagine how amazing it will taste in January–if it lasts that long!
Strawberry Jam
Adapted from the Pomona’s Pectin recipe
More so than many things I’ve made on this blog, jam is less of an art (no amount of icing will save an unsealed jar of jam) and more of a science. So if you are planning on making jam that you are going to heat process in jars, I highly recommend that you go read the USDA guidelines, as well as some of the excellent jamming blogs out there. Because if you don’t preserve correctly, you can get sick, and that’s no fun for anyone.
I accidentally ended up with Pomona’s Pectin–it was the only pectin I could find in my local stores–but now I’m in love. Pomona’s uses a special type of pectin that reacts with calcium water (which you make from a packet in the box) so it sets with very low amounts of sugar. This lets you dial down the sugar, which I think lets the taste of the fruit come through. Perfect if your goal is that fresh summer berry taste, in a jar! The recipe below is for Pomona’s standard jam–my one flat of strawberries made this recipe 3 times over.
Ingredients:
4 cups crushed berries
2 cups sugar (Pomona’s sets up with as little as a 1/4 cup)
2 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin
2 teaspoons calcium water
Directions:
Wash and rinse jars; let stand in hot water in your canner (I let my water simmer). Bring lids and rings to boil; turn down heat; let stand in hot water.
Measure fruit or juice into a large saucepan and add the calcium water. Bring fruit mixture to a boil. Mix sugar and pectin together in a large bowl.
Once fruit is boiling, stir in sugar mixture. Stir well for 1-2 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Return fruit to a boil and then remove from heat.
Fill jars to 1/4″ of top. Wipe rims clean, then screw on 2-piece
lids. Put filled jars in your canner, making sure that they are completely submerged in the water. Boil at a hard, roaring boil, for 10 min, adding 1 minute more for every 1,000 feet you are above sea level. Remove jars from water. Let cool on countertop for 24 hours. You should start to hear the satisfying sound of jars sucking down in a bout an hour!
Check seals after one day by testing the center of the lid to see if there is any give. If there is, these aren’t sealed, and should either be reprocessed or stored in the fridge for immediate consumption. Jam lasts about 3 weeks in the fridge once opened–that is, if you don’t eat it all before then!
{ 13 comments } | 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
|
Beth, that looks like a total win. But where do the jars and pot live in the 990 sf? If I could find room for all that stuff, I’d be canning like mad.
Wendi–here’s my secret…the 990 doesn’t include the basement, which is where the canner and jars live.
Very clever. If I could only convince the other person in my house to get rid of some of the crap that lives in the basement, then maybe I could stash some canning supplies down there.
Maybe the next house.
I love dialing down the sugar whenever I can. I admire the step you took. I hope one day I am as brave.
awesome, beth! and you must be a big jam eater if you’re putting up pint jars of it! i can’t eat that much in 2 weeks (ok, i stretch that guideline!). and i love pomona’s- you can make your own recipe, double the recipe, use honey, love it.
To say we eat a lot is an understatement–Noel and I both eat PBJ most days, and I eat it in yogurt and stuff. So for us to go through two jars that size in a month isn’t totally out of the question!
Strawberry season is gone but you still have some in jam form – brilliant! I’m jealous! It looks like you worked hard for your jam too. I made jam only once, and the recipe just called for strawberries and maple syrup. Maybe that was more like a fruit puree though. Do you think you could can jam without the pectin?
Jen–I did a lot of recipe research before I decided to can, and in the end I decided to use pectin because I was worried that without a jelling agent, I would end up with 8 pints of strawberry syrup, which would have ended in tears. Like I said in the post though, I’m really happy with using Pomona’s Pectin. It’s a citrus based pectin that I bought at Whole Foods, which frankly, makes me less worried that it’s full of scary chemicals (if that’s the worry). The jam I’ve made since this strawberry batch was all made with honey and pomona’s–with a 4 cups of fruit to one cup of honey ratio. I’ve done more strawberry, blueberry and sweet cherry!
Hooray!!! Congrats! Yummm for fresh local jam in the middle of our next snowstorm!
Congrats! That looks amazing. I would love to one day make my own jam. The whole canning thing is putting me off at the moment. Soon I’ll overcome that fear. Way to go!
Mmm, your strawberry jam looks delicious. I don’t think I’m brave enough to try jam yet… is there anything for beginners? Like if I want to make some and not store it.. say, one jar at a time? (Does that even remotely make any sense?). Anyway, love your blog – I’m a new reader, just stumbled upon it this afternoon!
I love jam!! I love that you decided to just go for it and make it yourself.
This recipe sounds amazing!
Becca-You could try halving the recipe (which should yield about 2 cups of cooked jam) then store it in a glass/plastic jar in the fridge. It should stay good for 3-4 weeks.