Stovetop Strawbs
Next up in the Saving Summer series, strawberries.
Strawberries are the ultimate summer fruit. When you get a good one, it is the best one. Sweet, sugary, juicy, soft, with just the right amount of yield as you bite into it. When they are cheap, I can never rein myself in. I need to buy as many as I can. A kilo or more. My fruit guy, Nick, always asks what I’m going to do with all of them. I always answer that I bake with them or eat them as a snack. But recently, my strawberry lust grew untamed. I realised I could not bake enough cakes or make enough fruit salads to adequately winnow down the two full colanders in my fridge before they went mouldy.
It was time to enter the world of preserves.
Jam was the answer. The only part of the strawberry that isn’t used is the stem and hull. All you need is the fruit, sugar and lemon juice. I had more old jars than I knew what to do with. It was time to jam.
Making jam is surprisingly easy, and you can get to jamming in just 15 minutes if you’re so inclined. I prefer the longer starting method, where the sugar and fruit are tossed together and left to sit overnight. As the sugar dissolves, this macerates the strawberries, pulling their juices out and welcoming you the next morning to a sweet, vibrant strawberry soup.
To get jamming, mix in 2 cups of sugar with 1.5kg of hulled and quartered strawberries and let it sit overnight. The next day, bring it to the boil, then let it simmer, add the juice of one lemon and voila - you have enough jam to fill three random-sized jars (about 800ml altogether). I don’t add pectin - if I wanted a store-bought jam texture, I’d buy store-bought jam. See my pesto rant for how I feel about that.
The kind of fruit you use and how small you cut it will dictate the jam’s final thickness: blueberries and raspberries will break down almost completely, and they will thicken more due to their higher pectin content. Strawberries are lighter on pectin and the fruit will stay chunkier. But if you like a thicker jam, a great way to counteract the pectin-lite nature of strawberries is to halve the strawberries instead of quartering. If the fruit is chunkier, though, it does make the jam harder to spread, so keep that in mind. Below is a demonstration of halved strawberries vs. quartered strawberries.
In a large heavy-bottomed pot, mix the fruit and sugar. Let sit overnight. (15 minutes if you really wanna, but we are trying to enjoy the process here).
The next day, bring the fruit to a boil over medium-high heat until the juices start to boil, 3–4 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium, and stir the jam occasionally at first, progressing to frequent stirring as the juices thicken. The fruit will mostly break down, and the jam will go from being watery to syrupy. You want to cook it until this point, around 50 minutes.
Add the lemon juice, stirring constantly, until the jam has thickened back up, another 10 minutes. You can test the jamminess of the jam through the wrinkle test. Put a ceramic plate in the freezer for about 5 minutes. Spoon your jam onto said plate, and if when you drag your finger through it, the gathered jam forms little wrinkles, it’s ready. If not, cook a few minutes more and repeat the test.
Meanwhile, sterilise your jars. Remove the lids from your jars. Put the jars on an oven tray (make sure they aren’t touching each other!) Put them in the oven and turn the oven to 180 °C. Put the tray of jars in the oven and once the oven reaches temperature, leave them in there for 10 minutes.
To sterilise your lids, boil them for 10 minutes in a small pot of water. Remove jars from the oven and lids from the pot and place them on a clean tea towel once the 10 minutes is up.
Remove the jam from the heat. Using a ladle, divide the jam among your jars and seal them at once. Let it come to room temperature on the counter.
To preserve, submerge the jars in a large pot of tap water and ensure the water covers the entire jar (you can lay them sideways if needed).
Bring to the boil, and then boil for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, and only when the water and jars have cooled enough for you to handle them, remove them from the water and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Pursue the Pop!
You’ll hear a satisfying metallic pop as the jars cool. This means the vacuum seal is working! Science!
Check the Seal
After 24 hours, press the centre of the lid. If it doesn’t move or “give,” it’s sealed. If it pops back up, refrigerate that jar and eat it immediately.
Love strawberry jam