Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Jam
Originally uploaded by obsessiondujour

7 1/2 pints of summer sunshine, right here.

Perfectly set strawberry jam without commercial pectin. It's kind of a golden fleece around here. Don't get me wrong, I am anything but a pectin snob, for real, but I'm never fond of the texture that seems peculiar to the pectin/strawberry jam combo in my experience. I'm excited to finally hit on the right set up.

I just used the same basic Ball Blue Book of Preserving recipe for no pectin jam that I've always used, but I did two things differently. The first was making sure that a couple handfuls of the berries I used weren't completely ripe because the green/white berry tips have far more natural pectin in them. The second change was that I started the night before. I just did the crushing, sugaring and initial boiling stages on Saturday night and let the boiled berry/sugar/lemon mixture sit, covered overnight. Then I got up on Sunday morning and boiled it again to the gelling point. A quick hot water bath later and, before lunch even, I had fresh strawberry jam.

I love that even though I KNOW it took exactly the same amount of my hands on time that it always does, it felt like it was WAY faster because I did it this way. Hooray for psychology.

Comments

[Manise]

Oh yum! Nice job!

[Martha]

My mom used to can, but even though I helped her every year (and know her recipes by heart) I am intimidated by the idea of doing it on my own. So I am MOST impressed by your efforts!!

[Rena]

Hooray, indeed, for psychology. I sometimes refer to my life as a vast web of self trickery. It works! Heh.

"the green/white berry tips have far more natural pectin in them" ...this is fascinating. I never knew!