Strawberry Jam

    I realise that it's a bit silly of me not to post about Strawberry Jam until now. I make it all the time, it's probably leader of the universal favourite jam competition by a long ways. Everyone has this in their fridge, lots of people make it themselves, basically I'm a numpty. but I'm glad I've saved it until now actually, because my last batch was by far the best I've ever made. Not that you can taste it (sorry), but I've discovered that the (not so) secret to good strawberry jam is the quality of the berries. And these were some pretty darn good berries. I picked these from my friend's PYO, West Green Fruits, a few weeks ago. I wish I could do an online scratch and sniff of what the strawberry fields smelled like, because it was heavenly. I also wish you could have tasted these berries, they were the best strawberries I have ever tasted in my life. I sadly forgot my camera that day as well, or you could see a picture of all out juicy chins from eating while we picked.

    Now I did a naughty thing and froze my strawberries in order to get them home, and they went all soggy when they defrosted. But as I was planning to make jam out of them anyway, that didn't really matter so much. It did make hulling them a big mess though, so I highly recommend using fresh berries.
    As per usual, I got out my Jam book, The Joy of Jams, Jellies and other Sweet Preserves, and used it as a guide. this is the usual recipe I use for Strawberry Jam, but i use less sugar, and this time I used way less sugar because the berries themselves were really lovely and sweet already.
       Now I know that there is a big debate going on in the UK right now over the fine line between a jam and a preserve, apparently unless you use a certain amount of sugar, you can't call it jam. I think this is rubbish and feeds our ever growing love affair with sugar. Also, when I have jam on my toast, I like to be able to differentiate between the different fruits. I had to purchase some store-bought strawberry and raspberry jam a few months ago (soft fruit season hadn't started yet) and I couldn't tell which one I was eating, they both just tasted too sweet and the berries got lost in all that sugar. So when i make jam (especially strawberry) I almost always cut the sugar content, this way you get the flavour of the berries, and a little acidic zing as well. Here's my stalwart recipe:

Strawberry Jam
1 pound of strawberries (hulled)
1 cup of sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

    You bang it all into your preserving pan together, heat it over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved, then turn up the heat and bring it to a boil, stirring frequently. Test it on a chilled plate, when a mound forms (or a skin crumples on your finger when you push it through the jam). then into your sterilised jars, label and allow it to cool.

    Now, as I said, I didn't add as much sugar this time because the berries were pretty sweet on their own. So typically what I do if I'm not sure how much sugar to add in is I start with half the amount, I let that dissolve and then I do a taste test, if it's too acidic, or not sweet enough, I add more sugar to taste. I think I used about 3/4 a cup this time. but the less sugar you add the longer it will take to reach the setting stage, so keep that in mind. I also find that this recipe can be doubled, but not tripled, large batches need more lemon juice, more sugar and/or a bit of extra pectin (either from another fruit source or from the shop) and take a long time to make. I prefer to make smaller batches. You can easily hull the second batch of strawberries while the first batch is coming to the boil.