I found out on Monday that a colleague of mine is having a birthday and decided to make her some strawberry jam. It's actually a lot simpler to make than the peach jam I made on the weekend. And this time I took more pictures along the way!
Step one, trim 500g of strawberries, break them up with a potato masher, and mix in 350g of sugar. I used the vanilla sugar my mother in law gave me from real Tahitian vanilla beans! I don't know if you'll be able to taste it but I thought I'd give it a try.
Some recipes say to let the strawberries macerate overnight, some don't, but since I did this step as soon as I got home I decided to let them sit until after dinner.
![http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden11/strawjam1.JPG](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vMcGmUe2GZ_9-QKiR9MKFzRDhyuzFxBO_fbjlxcP4olNKx-kOP-d2QUioDXEXDQVmPd91NZRaoQBpXLjKPDD3w-u8YpnPdXwtYK89yQuqSS_nA3FqiHQ=s0-d)
Step 2, add some pectin. Pectin is the stuff in fruit that makes jam firm and not runny. Strawberries don't have a lot of it, so I added the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Just to be safe, I wrapped the seeds and some of the rind of the lemon in cheesecloth like I did with the apple in the peach jam. I sat this in the mixture whilst it macerated.
![http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden11/strawjam2.JPG](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u_tTeE8XieksEPT8ZP2W0F-2bfhhoU1ETslQ4yHuxfTwTc7673oDwVfu3ENwlr_W6XxMshunk6qmKUvba1CC9ZZTxzzS3lPaudOgVJtfT4gp2HtyxjHA=s0-d)
Step 3, slowly heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves, then bring to a roiling boil. This foamed up a lot more than the peach jam did, so make sure you use a big pot! Look at it go! That pink blob in the middle is foam, which you should skim off so the jam doesn't go cloudy.
![http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden11/strawjam3.JPG](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u5o6UtW7Nngys6llh5wgp8zR4Rj-8BSsqZdSFwD7aRaKkajmsVlBoSULYOs6vUHmQvgQhwyjt837Ww1MSttqxMBgnSm2BgNuyn1WMw9Ml4Ks-FaI-tRQ=s0-d)
After boiling for 10 minutes, test some jam on a plate you've kept in the freezer. If after a minute the jam is still runny, boil for another few minutes. If it's a bit wrinkly and firm on the plate, it's ready to bottle up. A lot faster work than the peach jam, which took 30 minutes of cooking before you added the sugar and another 20-30 minutes after adding the sugar.
Once again I tried putting the lid on the jar and turning it upside-down to sterilize the lid. Once again, it threw up on the benchtop when I did that (my poor oven mitt is now coated in two layers of jam). I got this jar from the supermarket, it's obviously not a very good lid!
![http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden11/strawjam4.JPG](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tcP3rzO83rjKIR_XoY1-py2zDxrmx9r2cb2umjiWzwV6Ry43C-NqJXOQMIET8ez8uRuydxE2Xxa2GceJoS763DAYB2euOEJO14OvGbUJYdbSrvKjCOhg=s0-d)
In any case, as long as you sterilize the jars beforehand, keep it in the fridge, and eat it pretty quickly it's not a huge deal. I just hope my work colleague enjoys the jam! I kept back just a tiny portion to try later.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uzYyT3fvE9eW4k0z-gGg-OEh3wq8J2b2KPAZuR8-xoLv6iHhCK7N6H9NQ_DkU4HIYn6HuQP-HbHr_jeeCI_9GkVxJkZamXuwigrboDCNYHcHB1KffQ1XabezW5FOY6xtZtDWT9PglrpZK1_U8=s0-d)
Step one, trim 500g of strawberries, break them up with a potato masher, and mix in 350g of sugar. I used the vanilla sugar my mother in law gave me from real Tahitian vanilla beans! I don't know if you'll be able to taste it but I thought I'd give it a try.
Some recipes say to let the strawberries macerate overnight, some don't, but since I did this step as soon as I got home I decided to let them sit until after dinner.
Once again I tried putting the lid on the jar and turning it upside-down to sterilize the lid. Once again, it threw up on the benchtop when I did that (my poor oven mitt is now coated in two layers of jam). I got this jar from the supermarket, it's obviously not a very good lid!
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