By preparing preserves in small batches, the jam will cook quickly enough that the fruit retains its fresh taste. This recipe works best by weight. (How else would you know if you were a few strawberries short of a pint?) Use equal amounts of fruit and sugar. We’ve listed approximate volume measures if you don’t have a scale (2 pints of strawberries weigh about 2 pounds).
If you haven’t made jam before, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the basics on sidebar. You do need to sugar the berries the night before.
MAKES FIVE 8-OUNCE JARS
2 |
pounds strawberries, rinsed, hulled and cut into bite-size pieces (about 8 cups) |
2 |
pounds sugar (about 4 cups) |
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Juice of 1 lemon or orange |
Combine the strawberries and sugar in a large pot and heat slowly until the juices are clear, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon (or orange) juice, then cover loosely and let stand overnight.
The next day, get everything ready for canning. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and sterilize 5 sets of jars and lids, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, but leave the jars and lids in the hot water until you’re ready to use them.
Heat 2 cups of the strawberries and juice in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When the strawberries start to simmer, cook, stirring often, until the preserves test done (see sidebar), 3 to 5 minutes.
Ladle the jam into the sterilized jars, filling to within ¼ inch of the rims. Cover each jar with a lid and fasten the ring tight. Set aside and repeat with the remaining strawberries and juice.
Seal according to instructions below.
“Nobody makes jam at home anymore, except for shut-ins and little old ladies,” a long-ago editor once told me. I was thinking about that Sunday as I whipped up a mess of strawberry preserves after breakfast, in between going to the farmers’ market and getting ready to watch the Lakers. Granted, home preserving has an image about as hip and sexy as a gingham apron. But hip and sexy is a passing pleasure, especially when compared with the flavor of a spoonful of my strawberry preserves smeared on a piece of hot buttered toast. And don’t even get me started on my Elephant Heart plum or nectarine and rose geranium jam.
It is surprising that in this do-it-yourself world of cooking, where people brag about making their own bread, fresh pasta and chicken broth, jam making is still so little regarded. That’s especially true considering this technique, which makes creating your own jams and preserves about as complicated as cooking a quick pasta for dinner. All you need is a big pot, a nonstick skillet, jars and a scale. Oh, and fruit. But just a little bit.
The problem with most preserving is that it requires such large quantities. This requirement does have the advantage of making enough preserves to take you through a hard midwestern winter. However, that benefit is outweighed by the finger cramps you get when paring a bushel of fruit, the amount of time required to cook it all and the sheer uncertainty involved when preparing jam in such large batches. (Is it done now? Now? Now?)
With this abbreviated method, a couple of pints of strawberries turn into four or five jars of jam in less than 20 minutes of cooking time. You have to let them sit overnight—to let the sugar pull all that sweet juice out of the fruit—but how much trouble is that? I first tried this method a couple of years ago at the suggestion of a friend, cookbook author Sylvia Thompson. Before long, just about every time I went to the market, I’d come back with a couple of pounds of something to turn into jam. This basic technique will work with everything from strawberries to peaches and plums.
To start, wash the fruit and cut it into bite-size pieces. Weigh it, then put it in a pot with an equal weight of sugar.
Bring the mixture to a boil and stir until the juices are clear. Then set it aside for several hours or overnight. Ladle a couple of cups of fruit into a skillet and bring it to a boil. Cook until the mixture has set, 5 minutes or less, and you’re done.
When you’re working with only 2 cups of fruit, you can tell by the feel when the mixture has set. Suddenly, it’s thicker and smoother as you’re stirring. As a longtime preserver, I am still startled that it cooks so quickly. In fact, the first batch usually winds up slightly overcooked. (“Let’s go a little longer; it can’t be done already!” But it is.)
You’ll notice that this jam is a little softer than what you may be used to. That’s because it’s made without artificial pectin, which results in a very firm set but which also requires more sugar than I like to use.
In fact, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), you can’t really call this jam. FDA regulations on product identity require jams, jellies and preserves to contain at least 65 percent sugar. This jam has only 50 percent sugar and can be made with even less. That leaves it with a much fresher taste and a brighter color.
You can easily store the four or five jars of jam this recipe makes in the refrigerator. They’ll last a couple of weeks, and then you’ll be ready to make some more. But if you want to can the jam so that you can store it without refrigeration, you’ll need to devote another 15 minutes to the process.
Despite the mystique surrounding it, canning isn’t hard. The main thing is making sure everything you use is sterilized—easy enough to do when one of the requirements is a big pot of boiling water. Boil the jars and lids for 5 minutes, and you’re ready to go. Ladle the jam mixture into the jars (a wide-mouth canning funnel isn’t necessary but will certainly make things easier). Put the lids on the jars and tighten down the bands. Now put the jars in the boiling water, making sure they’re completely submerged. (If you have a pasta insert—the deep basket that comes with a pasta pot—you can add the jars and remove them much more easily.) Cook for 10 minutes and then lift the jars from the bath. After a couple of hours, check to make sure you have good seals. (The merry pinging you should hear during the cooldown will be the lids popping from the vacuum forming.) Press down firmly on the center of each lid; there shouldn’t be any flex. If the lid flexes, repeat the canning process.
If you’ve had trouble in the past telling when jam has jelled, try this method. To make certain the jam is cooked, dip a rubber or plastic spatula into the mixture, then lift it out. When the mixture no longer flows from the side at one point but instead begins to come off at multiple points or in sheets, it’s done. Or use the plate test: Chill a plate in the freezer for 10 minutes. When you think the jam is ready, spoon a drop of liquid onto the plate. If it doesn’t run when you tilt the plate, you’re done.