Strawberry jam

My mom and Amanda, c.1987

My mom used to make delicious homemade strawberry jam without adding pectin, and she called it "farm jam." There's nothing wrong with following the recipe on the pectin box and it guarantees your jam will turn into jam instead of ultra-sweet sauce. On the other hand, pectin jam can be stiff and rubbery instead of gooey.  It's just a matter of preference and mom and dad liked their jam soft. The amount of natural pectin in the fruit is a wild card for the jam cook.

Guess what, my dears?  It was raining cats and dogs again yesterday morning.  Outside chores and garden work are piling up for another week. No riding. The museum is closed until July. And I refused to drive through the monsoon to the gym. But! I had a 4-pound carton of strawberries and decided to give jam-making a try in the early morning hours. What did I have to lose except time and $5.99?

It isn't like you need lots of ingredients to make jam, so you can be impulsive like that.There are plenty of recipes and advice on the Internet but the process is pretty simple.  First-- rough crush the strawberries and measure it out.

About one cup of sugar goes in the pot for each cup of fruit.

Yes! That is a lot of sugar, but this is jam, hopefully eaten just by the tablespoon. Add the juice of one lemon. That's it.

Add high heat and the boiling starts. The strawberries foam up dramatically and it's nice to have the right kitchen tool (a jam skimmer you use once every 5 years) to skim off the top. 

Here's the tricky part.  When is it "done?"  Where is mom when you need her? Well, the recipes said to cook the mixture until it comes up to 220 degrees.  I don't have a candy thermometer and my digital meat thermometer conked out at 210 and refused to go higher.  So...I guessed.  I put a dab on a plate in the freezer to chill and it seemed to thicken up OK.  So I filled the jars and processed them in the canner for 10 minutes. 

Yes, it is on the runny side.  So I'll call it a spread, something between jam and sauce. But the flavor is pure strawberry and not cloyingly sweet.  I think it will be good on waffles, French toast and corn bread.  And when John came home from work and had a taste, he added vanilla ice cream to the list.  Well, whatever you want to call it, it's good stuff.