Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Jam

Making strawberry jam only requires a few ingredients.  Our family has been making strawberry preserves and jams since I was a young child.  

Safe canning practices are easy to follow and important to understand, and for more information regarding canning and food preservation consult the Ball Blue Book for Canning. Basic Canning 101 from Ball

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

5 cups fresh strawberries; cleaned, hulled and crushed.

1 box Sure-Jell (1.75 ounce-yellow box)

7 cups granulated sugar

Instructions

Clean, hull and chop about 2 quarts of fresh strawberries. Place in a deep sided bowl.

(To hull is to remove the stems, leaves and any underripe or bad spots)

Crush the strawberries, using a potato masher or use a food processor.

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

5 cups fresh strawberries; cleaned, hulled and crushed.

1 box Sure-Jell (1.75 ounce-yellow box)

7 cups granulated sugar

Instructions

Clean, hull and chop about 2 quarts of fresh strawberries. Place in a deep sided bowl.

(To hull is to remove the stems, leaves and any underripe or bad spots)

Crush the strawberries, using a potato masher or use a food processor.

Measure exactly 5 cups of crushed strawberries. Place 5 cups of crushed strawberries into a large heavy-bottomed pot. (The mixture will rise as it boils-so be sure to use a large pot with plenty of room)

Stir in 1 box of Sure-Jell into the strawberries.  Stir mixture regularly and bring to a boil. 

Once mixture is boiling, add the 7 cups of granulated sugar-and stir together.

Return the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute exactly and then remove the pot from the heat.  (A rolling boil is a boil that cannot be stirred down) 

Tip: I always stir the jam as it’s heating to keep mixture from scorching.

Remove pot from the heat 

skim off any foam and ladle the hot strawberry jam into the prepared jars. (Prepared jars have been washed, rinsed and then heated to 200 degrees either in a 200 degree oven-or in a hot water bath-or dishwasher sanitizer setting.  The key is to fill the hot clean jars with hot properly measured jam.  

Fill each jar with jam, leaving 1-2 inches of head space at the top. Do not overfill the jars. Using a funnel made for canning is very helpful.

Wipe off rim and threads saucepan each jar, and attach sanitized lids and rings. Use new rings and lids, that were heated in hot water bath.

(A water bath for the lids can be saucepan on the stovetop with boiling water-place lids in water until ready to use)  

Process finished strawberry jams or preserves in a hot-water bath. Place jars on a rack in a large canning pot with at least 2 inches of water above the top of each jar. Boil, covered with a lid for 10 minutes. Follow Ball Canning Blue Book for additional instructions about processing times.

Carefully remove the hot jars from the canner, by lifting the rack. Allow jars to come to room temperature, check to see that each jar is sealed.

Properly sealed jars of jam can last 1 year.  

If a jar is not sealed or wasn’t processed in a hot water bath, refrigerate those jars and use within 1 month or freeze for longer 6-month storage.

*The recipe measurements are from the Sure-Jell recipe booklet.