Thursday, September 8, 2011

Frugal Foodie: Easy Strawberry Jam Canning Recipe


Here is a delicious and quite easy recipe for Strawberry Jam.

New to canning? Check out the Ball website for some great tips: http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx


Ingredients:

2 cups of strawberries prepared (see below)
1 cup of granulated sugar (this was modified against the normal 1 cup of sugar/1 cup of strawberries but I don't care for to much sugar)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of Ball Classic Pectin

Directions:
  1. Choose ripe strawberries, hull them (looks like the photo below).
  2. Take a potato masher and mash the strawberries by layers. Put first layer in and mash, then layer the second, third etc. I have read of people putting them in a blender and pureeing them as well but have never tried, I think it depends on what texture you desire.
  3. Pour the prepared strawberries into a measuring cup (so you know how much you have to measure against the sugar and pectin) and then add them along with the lemon juice into a sauce pan, bringing to a boil.
  4. Once the boil is rolling, gradually add pectin, then add sugar and mix until dissolved. Allow mixture to come to a harder boil just one more time for 1 minute then remove from heat.
  5. Skim foam. What I did was I took the ladle, skimmed the foam and then put in a bowl. Once it set for a few minutes I added it to ice cream, yum!
  6. Pour the hot strawberries into the jars. Seal tight then boil in a canner for 10 minutes using the water bath method.
Enjoy!

My tips for canning anything:
  • Be patient and can when you have time because it does take time.
  • Sanitize, sanitize sanitize! The one thing I've learned is that it is extremely important to make sure not only your jars and lids are sanitized but also your canning tools such as tongs, spoons, funnel etc.
  • Use ripe fruit, when you use fruit that hasn't quite ripened it has an off taste and it's harder to press.

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