I made jam for the first time recently and if you’re my friend on Facebook, you may already know about my adventures in jam making! Here’s the recipe I used, followed with a commentary about all that happened when I made this jam!
Strawberry Jam
8 cups of strawberries (about 4 pints), crushed
5 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Mix all ingredients in Dutch oven. Heat to boiling over high heat, stirring frequently. Boil uncovered, stirring frequently, until translucent and jam is thick, about 25 minutes. Quickly skim off foam. Immediately pour jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe rim of jars. Seal as directed on jars.
I got about 7 half pints of jam from this recipe. I didn’t crush the berries, I just sliced them. I made the mistake of using the JAM setting on my bread machine instead of using the dutch oven since I don’t have a dutch oven. The jam setting didn’t cook the mixture enough. When I poured it into the hot, sterilized jars, it was watery – like strawberry water. I went ahead and sealed the jars anyway, thinking it would thicken later. Several hours later, it was still watery. I figured that it didn’t cook long enough on the JAM setting on the bread machine, even though it went through the whole cycle for JAM on the bread machine. Feeling upset about all the wasted time and effort, I opened the sealed jars and poured the strawberry water into a big pot and cooked it until it thickened on the stove. I stirred frequently and it took about 25 minutes for it to thicken. I then re-sterilized the jars and poured the thicken jam into the jars and resealed them. I then placed the sealed jars into hot water so that they could re-seal.
I called my mom and she informed me that since I’d already sealed the strawberry water earlier, I couldn’t re-use the lids since the seal was now broken. By this time, it was nine o’clock at night and I wasn’t going out to buy new lids. I ended up leaving the jars out to cool, with the lids on and the next day I placed them into the refrigerator, just to be safe.
The day after Labor Day, once we’d returned from work, I opened a jar of jam and found that it had sealed! 🙂
I made some toast and we spread butter and jelly on the toast and IT WAS GOOD! Our five-year-old son stated: “Mmmm! Mommy, this is good!”
It was so delicious and we ate a whole jar within a couple of days! 🙂
Do any of you can regularly? I do have a question if you do? You know the lids for the jars? Are you supposed to sterilze both parts of the lids before you place them onto the filled jars? I’d think if you sterilized that middle part of the lid, the one with the seal, that it being in the boiling water would break the seal before you screwed it on the lid?
I plan on doing this again, but not anytime soon! I’ll probably do it in the spring or summer. I’ll probably make peach preserves next! Doesn’t that sound yummy!
I remember my mom doing that when I was little. A lot of work but it was worth it : )
I make alot of jam! Contrary to popular opinion, it is safe to re-use lids if the rubber does not have nicks in it and especially for jam as it has enough sugar in it to keep without being sealed. I have never made it in the bread machine.
Hey Robin! I don’t recall my mother ever making jam. She reminded me that once she made refrigerator jam with strawberries we’d picked at the strawberry patch. She said that she didn’t need canning equipment for the refrigerator jam, she just made it and refrigerated it.
When I called my mom for advice about canning recently, she was going by memory from ages ago, before I was even born…and that’s a long time ago and I’m assuming people canned more back then? I know my mom lived on a farm for awhile, and they had excess food, so they probably canned it.
Martha, when I make the peach preserves next year in the spring/summer, I might try and re-use the same jars and lids. I’m not going to throw them away. I’ll try it and see what happens! It’d be really cool to see how it turns out.
Ladies, this jam was a lot of work, but, it is oh, so good!