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A while ago, I wrote about how to make homemade blueberry jam. Now I'll show you how to make strawberry jam at home as part of your digital therapy. I'll also show you apricot jam. We always eat it first in our family. Hahaha
How to choose the right fruit for delicious jam?
There are small differences between the individual types of fruit that need to be mentioned. For example:
Blueberries are sweet, and when you grind them into jam, you will be left with tiny, delicious skins as a remnant of the blueberry, which will give the jam a beautiful color. This is then sweet and mainly suitable for tea pastries, Christmas cookies, pancakes, etc. Jam is typically purple in color and is harder to wash off if it gets on a white t-shirt.
Strawberries are very often used in jam. Children absolutely love them, even though the jam leaves tiny seeds that can get between their teeth. That's why it's good if someone in your household wears braces, so that you have other options for them than strawberries. They're sweet, so they're great for tea, Linz cookies, and Christmas cookies. Strawberry jam is also a beautiful shade of red. Steamed jam is a little better, but still no glory. The situation is very similar to raspberries, which also have small stones that get between your teeth.
Apricots are the best, in my opinion. If you pit them, you have peace of mind, and practically everyone in the family can eat them. They are better to wash, but more about apricots next time. 😊
What strawberries are best for making homemade jam?
I love strawberries, but not their short shelf life. Ripe strawberries are the best for homemade jam. If you use unripe ones, their unchopped pieces will stick in the jam. The jam will also not gel well. On the contrary, if you use overripe ones, the pectin in them is already in the process of decomposition, and you will have a liquid jam. Moreover, strawberries tend to spoil quickly. So if you want to make homemade jam and you have strawberries, go ahead. It will be delicious, but ideally, process everything today.
Strawberries spoil very quickly, and every day that they just lie there, the quality and taste of the future jam decreases significantly.
For the perfect strawberry jam, I recommend using strawberries that are ripe enough to eat right away. In short, ripe, intended for immediate consumption. With strawberry jam, it is always a big challenge for me to keep the strawberries away from my children, who absolutely adore strawberries and take them from my bowl.
How to clean strawberries before making jam?
As I mentioned earlier, strawberries are a very fragile fruit. So it is necessary to treat them accordingly. When cleaning strawberries, I cut off their green crown (the top of the strawberry is technically the calyx). It does not belong in the jam. I put each cleaned item into this bowl this way. I do not throw them away. I clean all the strawberries this way. It has been two days since I cooked this jam, and I can still smell how nice it smelled when I prepared the fresh strawberries. I also have to say that it is very pleasant to wash the strawberries for jam in water, and to feel them gently roll between your fingers. It is a joy to watch that fragrant, red joy.
What do you need to make homemade strawberry jam?
500 g of Gelling agent. I use a ready-made mixture of sugar and the right ratio of gelling powder. It is great that I do not have to mix anything or worry about the ratios of how much of what, because everything is nicely prepared by the manufacturer, and I can just enjoy the moment of production. Moreover, 500 g is enough for 1.5 kg of fruit, which is about 8 small 250 ml glasses. So I have a small, homemade production.
1.5 kg of cleaned strawberries. If you buy 2 kg in the store, you will have some left over for snacks.
A glass jar with a lid. It must be a cooking glass. The cooked jam is hot, and the glass must be strong enough. I often recycle the jam into baby food jars, compotes, sauce jars, or olive jars. It doesn't matter. If you have a jar at home, don't throw it away and save it for summer jam.
An immersion blender or blender and a sufficiently deep pot. I always use the biggest one I have at home. It's not giant, but I put 1.5 kg of fruit in it.
How to make homemade strawberry jam
Wash the jars and lids you use for the jam.
Clean and wash the strawberries
Put the strawberries in a pot and blend them with an immersion blender. If you don't have a blender or food processor, cut the strawberries into small pieces and puree them in a blender or food processor, then pour the mixture into the pot.
While the mixture is cold, add the gelling agent and mix thoroughly. The gelling agent must be added cold; if you add it to hot fruit, it will form lumps and clots in the mixture, leaving a lumpy liquid. Always add the gelling agent to the cold mixture.
Keep stirring the mixture gently and gradually bring it to a boil.
Once the hot mass starts bubbling, boil for 5 minutes. Be careful, the mass is really hot, and if it splashes on you, it can burn you a little. You need to stir the mass gently at all times. It tends to stick to the bottom of the pot. After all, you have fruit and sugar in the pot, so it makes sense.
After 5 minutes of boiling, remove the mass from the pot and do a test. Drop a small drop onto a plate. Take it with a small spoon, for example. The point is that a small piece of mass quickly hardens. You will see how thick your jam will be. If it seems too liquid, add a pinch of citric acid and stir until dissolved. Just a pinch is really enough.
Can you smell how wonderful it smells? Then hurry up and pour it into the jars!
Gradually pour the marmalade into the prepared jars. Personally, I do this by pouring a small amount into a funnel, then into individual jars. I always fill one jar, immediately close it, and stand it upside down. I do it one at a time because if I prepare cooked strawberry jam in more jars at once, the jars will heat up within a few moments and become so hot that I will not be able to close them. If you go one at a time, you will always have time to close the jar.
I turn the jars upside down to seal the lid area. And I let them cool down like this. I always place the prepared jams, closed, on a towel in this way so that the open jar does not touch the kitchen counter directly, and I do not damage it.
What do we use strawberry jam for most often?
For pancakes, Christmas cookies 🎅, roulades, tea pastries, fresh bread, and maybe even yogurt. 🥰
I usually make a double batch so that I have at least 16 jars. That's because the girls love it, and I also use it as a medium of exchange. I have friends who like to pick mushrooms, and in my family, my parents like to preserve vegetables. Cucumbers and such, so some of the jam goes in this direction too. Plus, it's an absolutely wonderful and original gift because you're not just giving a homemade strawberry treat, but you're also giving the time you spent preparing the jam.
What do you use strawberry jam for? Or what do you plan to use strawberry jam for?
Enjoy cooking 😉
Dana
