Easy Strawberry Jam
- Servings: 6 pints
- Difficulty: easy
A super simple classic made especially delicious with fresh strawberries from the farm stand.
Ingredients
- 8 cups processed strawberries (hulled and quartered, mashed)
- 9 tbsp pectin
- 9 cups granulated sugar
- 6 pint jars – wide or regular mouth with lids
Directions
- Prepare water bath canner and jars/lids. Keep jars in hot water until ready to jam!
- Prepare strawberries. Rinse, remove hulls and quarter. Mash with a potato masher until uniform pieces. Strawberry pulp should equal 8 cups. Add to a large pot.
- Bring to a boil over med-high heat. Add in pectin gradually, stirring well.
- Cook, stirring very frequently until jam reaches a rolling boil that can’t be stirred away.
- Add in all sugar, stirring well.
- Bring back to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Cook 1 minute, then remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary.
- Carefully pull sanitized jars from hot water canner and fill, one at a time, leaving 1/4″ head space. Wipe down any drips, add new lid and finger tighten.
- Add filled and lidded jars back to hot water canner – remove excess water as needed, making sure water is 1-2″ above lids of jars. Bring to a rolling boil and process 10 minutes. Turn off heat and allow jars to sit in the water 5 mins.
- Carefully remove jars and set onto a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rest at room temperature 24 hrs, then check to make sure seals are good. Take off metal bands to store in your pantry.
- Enjoy your jam!
Recipe first, because ain’t no body got time for scrolling, and I don’t have one of those fancy sites with the “jump to recipe link” yet. I somewhat followed the recipe listed on my pectin, but adjusted the sugar levels a bit. You can find their recipe here.
We drove past a local farm stand and saw a flat of strawberries for $10, and all I thought about was ooh that’s a lot of jam. It’s super simple to make, but I will tell you I used to be intimidated by canning. Botulism and molds freak me out… but my grandma always made her special applesauce and green beans, so I knew I could do it if I followed a good recipe. Spoiler – it’s not as scary as it seems. As long as you follow proper sanitation, cook times, and safety measures you’ll be golden.
I have a pressure canner, but with small batches like this i just use a big ol’ pot with a canning rack.
You can add butter to keep the foam down, or even lemon juice for a bit of tart and to preserve the pH balance. It’s all up to your preference. I didn’t use lemon juice with these strawberries, but always do with blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry jams.
It’s a classic strawberry jam, no complaints here! We enjoyed a good old fashioned pb + j for lunch with the last bit left in the pot, it was delicious <3
Hope you find it easy and fun to make!
Elise