Strawberry Jam

I have been making jam of many sorts for a long time, sometimes quite unsuccessfully.  I can't tell you how many times I have woken up the next morning hoping the jam would be jammy and found instead ice-cream syrup.  I tried recooking, I tried making pancake syrup with it, overall those were unsatisfactory experiences. Other times, things went quite well - the jam was thick and perfectly sweet.   After all these years of trial and error, I set out to do as much research as possible to find out why jam works the way it does and the best way to make it.

First of all, I want to make a few observations.  While I have jelly jars all over the house, I decided not to use them this year.  Each jar only holds 8 ounces.  If you are like me, and your son has just pulled a loaf of bread out of the oven, an 8 ounce jar of jam will be gone in two dips of the knife.  I'm sticking with pint jars this year.  And since the jars are bigger, that means the batch size is just not going to work.  A typical recipe for jam makes about 8 jars or about 71/2 cups of jam.  If doubling the size of the jar, that would yield only 4 jars of jam, and in my house, that would last until next Tuesday.  I have heard the argument for small batch jam - it is easier to control, less likely to scorch, more likely to set.  So the first problem is how to make a larger batch of jam that works.

The other thing to consider is pectin.  In the great debate over jamming and canning, you will find those who refuse to use it - the jam purists.  I don't mind using pectin; pectin is a naturalsubstance found in under ripe apples and other fruits, like quince, boysenberry, red currants and cranberries.  Some wise old canners add a grated green apple to the pot of berries to give a pectin boost.  Others actually make their own pectin, something I am interested in trying in the near future, mostly because liquid pectin is so expensive.

Since I am doubling the size of the batch, I need to know how much pectin to add.  And while we are at it, if I'm throwing out the recipe, how much sugar?  It all gets back to pectin - fruit naturally contains it, but some fruits have more than others.  For example, high acid fruits like strawberries and peaches have lower levels of pectin, therefore are more likely to be thin unless you cook it past the point where it tastes good.  It has to taste as close to fresh strawberries as possible.

Here is an old-timey secret I discovered in a Shaker cookbook- don't cook the fruit until the end.  The trick is to cook sugar and a little bit of water until it boils and forms bubbles on the surface.  Then poor it over your crushed berries in a non-reactive heat-safe bowl or pan.  The berries steep in the hot syrup for 10 minutes, then strain off the juice and cook it again to the same thick consistency,  Poor it over your berries and let it steep again for 10 minutes.  Do this a third time.  After 10 minutes of steeping, poor the syrup and the berries into the pan and cook until it starts to thicken.  This is always a bit tricky, because everyone has different stoves and pans, and all fruit is not the same.  This is where I veer off the Shaker method.  I actually add pectin at this point, along with lemon juice to help the pectin work.Cook the jam to a temperature between 218 and 220 degrees.

The other way to tell is to use frozen spoons or dessert plates - put a small drop of jam on the chilled plate and if it forms a solid sheet it is ready. The easiest way to do this is to put a stack of dessert plates in the freezer before you start preparing the fruit.  By the time you are ready to test, spoon a little onto a plate and see if it gels.  If not, keep on cooking then test on the next plate.

 If you blow on the jam and the jam skin wrinkles that is also a sign that it is ready.  Add pectin and stir for just one minute - overcooking the jam with the pectin added prevents it from jelling.
As for jars, watch for them at tag sales, or buy them only when they are on sale at the supermarket or at a large department  store.  Sometimes you can buy them at Goodwill or Savers - just don't pay more for used jars than for new.

One other piece of advice - lemons were $.75  each at the store today.  It would take about 8 lemons to make a large batch of jam like this, so I bought bottled lemon juice.  Look for the kind that is not reconstituted.  I have found no information on the web that tells that bottled lemon juice does not work in jam making.  Some prefer the taste of fresh-squeezed, but the amounts are small enough that the jam is brightened by the bottled or fresh-squeezed juice.

My Recipe yields 9 pints of jam or 18 jelly jars

18 cups crushed strawberries with strawberry juice
18 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
4 pouches Ball liquid pectin

Put the berries in a large stainless steel bowl, glass pyrex or stoneware bowl and crush them with a potato masher.   Measure berries and juice and use the same amount of sugar.  Put sugar in a non-reactive stainless steel pot and add enough water to prevent the sugar from scorching as it comes to a boil (the amount does not have to be precise, because it will all evaporate as the sugar boils, but the more you add, the longer it will take to evaporate).

Cook the sugar syrup until it reaches the soft ball stage, or 235 F.  Poor the sugar syrup over the fruit and let stand for 10 minutes,  Please be careful when pouring the sugar - it is like molten lava.  Strain off the sugar and berry juice and return to the pan and  bring to a boil again,  Cook to the soft ball stage and poor the juice and syrup over the berries.  Let steep again for 10 minutes and strain off the juice and boil again.  Cook to the softball stage.  Put the fruit in the sugar syrup this time and cook again until it comes back to 235 degrees F.  Add the lemon juice and cook for 5 minutes, removing any foam that comes to the top of the jam.  (Adding a pat of butter to the jam as the berries cook also reduces the white foam but considerably adds to Weight Watchers Points Plus Values).  Stir in the liquid pectin and boil for 1 more minute.  Let the jam cool slightly for 10 minutes to prevent the berry solids from floating to the top of the jars.  Using a canning funnel and ladle, fill each jar within 1/4 inch of the rim.  Wipe the rims with a clean wet towel and put a sterile jar lid on the center of the jar and screw the band on until it is finger tight.  Using jar tongs, place the jars into a water bath and boil for 10 minutes.  Remove jars from boiling water bath and place on cooling rack, making sure jars are not touching.  You can tell when the jar is sealed by the popping noise as the vacuum is created.  If the domed center of the lid still moves up and down when you push on it, it is not sealed.  Place that jar in the refrigerator and use first.

Note - when I first started canning, I had an old canning pot with a wire jar basket.  Somewhere along the lines the basket got lost and when I tried to can, at least one jar would break in the boiling water.  Not a nice experience, especially when you have to fish in to a pot with broken glass.  Plus, whatever I was canning made all the other jars dirty and perhaps contaminated.  Not cool.  I learned that you have to have something on the bottom of the pot to prevent the jars from breaking.  You could use an upside down cake pan, a cake cooling rack, or even folded kitchen towel.  This prevents the jars from rattling along the bottom of the pot and breaking while under water.