Homemade Strawberry Jam Recipe – When you think of ‘Strawberry’ what comes to your mind? The big red and juicy image of Strawberry. There are umpteen things that you can do with Strawberries (apart from eating raw). So this time around when I plucked some fresh strawberries from a farm, I thought of doing something that could last for longer. I decided to make Strawberry Jam. To my own surprise this jam tasted far better than what I used to get from supermarket, and my 4 year old approved the same with both thumbs up.
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Jam making is something which I learnt from my mum. Having been grew up in India, strawberry was a rare commodity for me, however we had a guava tree and every season my mum will make tons of guava jam.
Those were the days in late 80s and early 90s when most of edible things were made at home, including jam, ketchup, chips (crisps as what brits will call), papads, etc. All these were fun activity. I learnt and inherited few things since then and I do now too and hoping my kids learn some from me to take the legacy ahead.
This strawberry jam is my improvisation based on common sense of cooking and trials.
Fortunately in UK, strawberries are available in abundance without much of pocket pinch. Every summer, we as family will go to strawberry picking, and pluck tons of strawberries, and this produces an excellent opportunity to stock up kitchen cabinets with this delicious strawberry jam.
Ingredient for strawberry jam
- Strawberry – 1 Kg. In my recipe, I have used fresh strawberries, however feel free to use frozen ones, the cooking time will be more in case of frozen strawberries to extract all the flavours out of strawberries.
- Sugar- 500 grams (Can vary it depending on how sweet strawberries are and how sweet you want your jam)
- Lemon – 2 (Medium Size) Lemon acts as natural preservative.
Method to make strawberry jam at home
- First off all wash and pat dry the strawberries. Now chop the strawberries into small pieces. Take a glass jar to store the cooked jam in it and make it completely dry either putting it oven for few minutes or keep it in sunlight for few hours.
- Take a non-stick pan and keep it on low flame. Add strawberries and sugar to the pan and with the help of a masher slightly mash the strawberries.
- Now raise the flame to medium and cook the jam until it reaches 1/2 of its quantity, stirring occasionally.
- Now squeeze the juice from both the lemons and add it to the jam. Again cook the jam for few more minutes. Now lets check the jam if it is cooked properly.
- Take water in a clear bowl and add a drop a little jam in it. If it sets at the bottom without dissolving in water, the jam is cooked.
- Switch off the flame and store it in the glass jar once its completely cooled.
- Enjoy it by spreading on bread or scone or anything you love to pair with Jam.
Pro Tips
- Look out for meaty fresh strawberries, and the one which are sweet. This will help you get nice chunky jam and which is naturally sweet, without need of topping sugar or adding only limited sugar.
- Keep notice to make sure that your jar is water free before adding sugar.
- Don’t over mash the strawberries, slightly mashed strawberry gives small chunks in the jam which taste really nice.
- In stead of making one big bottle of strawberry jam, split the storage in multiple bottles and open one by one. Once a bottle is opened, finish off the bottle in 3-4 weeks.
This strawberry jam
- Is easy and fun to make, involve kids in activities like plucking the crown from strawberries.
- Takes only 3 ingredients, however feel free to add other fruits to enhance flavour, such as this raspberry strawberry jam.
- Has good shelf life, prepare your stock in the season to last long
- Fresh jam like this one will taste much better as agains to what you get in superstores, and you know for certain what you have added in the jam, its pure!
Storage and serving suggestion
Store this jam in an air tight glass jar, ideally under refrigeration. This jam can last easily up to 6 months if looked after well.
Please make sure that every time you take out jam with spoon or knife, that spoon is dry and do not dunk the same spoon with bread crumbs or other food in the jar. Contamination of jam with food or other stuff, such a wet spoon, raises the risk of jam catching fungus, etc.
Serve this jam as condiment on anything you like, be it bread or paratha or anything.
Recipe Card
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
- 1 Kg Fresh Strawberries
- 500 grams Sugar Adjust as per the level of sweetness you like
- 2 Lemons Medium Size
Instructions
- First off all wash and pat dry the strawberries. Now chop the strawberries into small pieces. Take a glass jar to store the cooked jam in it and make it completely dry either putting it oven for few minutes or keep it in sunlight for few hours.
- Take a Non stick pan and keep it on low flame. Add strawberries and sugar to the pan and with the help of a masher slightly mash the strawberries.
- Now raise the flame to medium and cook the jam until it reaches 1/2 of its quantity, stirring occasionally.
- Take water in a clear bowl and add a drop a little jam in it. If it sets at the bottom without dissolving in water, the jam is cooked.
- Switch off the flame and store it in the glass jar once its completely cooled. Enjoy it as spreading on bread or scone. Have it your way!
Notes
- I didn’t put any preservative or any artificial colour/flavouring to the jam, but you can. Adding preservative will have its own taste on the jam. Sugar on its own acts as great preservative.
- You can easily store this jam for 4-6 months in Fridge. (You can keep it in smaller bottles and open only the one you need to use, this will extend the life of jam)
- Don’t over mash the strawberries, slightly mashed strawberry gives small chunks in the jam which taste really nice.