Day 130 - Strawberry Jam

This past weekend strawberries were on sale - big time!

$4.99 for 4 lbs. Over this past weekend, while my mom was in town, she picked some up for me. I was looking forward to enjoying a few while they were fresh and then freezing the rest for smoothies. My mom (half kidding) suggested I make strawberry jam. . . not a bad idea

So tonight, that is just what I did :)

I found a very simple recipe at All Recipes.com for strawberry jam without pectin (which I learned in my searching is often used in jams & jellies to get the right consistency).

Ingredients: (Total prep & cook time 1 hour)

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled and roughly diced
4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice (2 lemons)
canning jars (I used 7, 12 oz. jars)

First I cleaned all the strawberries

(and of course sampled a few as I worked) - the strawberries were delicious and there were a variety of different sizes, which I decided would add just the right amount of sweet & tart to my jam (this is something I just made up, but it makes sense - right?)

While I was working on preparing the strawberries I also had a big pot of boiling water going. (I first hand washed all the jars & lids in soapy hot tap water and then put them in the boiling water to further sanitize them).

Once all the strawberries were ready I put them in a large bowl and mashed them. I used my wood mallet mudler, but a regular silicon fruit mudler would of probably worked better (I don't have one of these - yet)

After a couple of minutes the berries were good & mashed

Next I combined the mashes strawberries, sugar and lemon in a large pot (I used a 4 quart pot and bigger would of been better, as you will see in a later picture, but it did the trick). I mixed all ingredients at a medium-low heat until the sugar dissolved and then brought the mixture to a boil and throughout the cooking process, stirred often.

After a few minutes the jam was really cooking and doubled in volume (almost boiling over). Per the recipe I kept cooking until the temperature reached 220F. Now I was ready to can. I added the jam to the hot jars using a pot holder to hold the jars (they were very hot)

Once canned I sealed each jar with a lid, I then placed them in a hot water bath for another 20 minutes to make sure they were all set.

Lastly I set the hot jars on a towel to cool a bit before putting them in the refrigerator (even though they were canned & sealed, I still wasn't 100% confident they wouldn't spoil - since this was my first canning experience).

After the jam cooled I toasted some good multi-grain bread

And tried my home made jam.

It turned out great! I must say I was pretty proud of my self for this first-time experience of canning & making jam. Quinn loved it too.