Strawberry Jam Recipe: How to Make Jam

My husband loves peanut butter and jelly with strawberry jam. And our son likes strawberry jam quite a bit, too. Normally, I stock up on Trader Joe’s organic strawberry jam whenever I happen to pass by one of their stores on one of my rare forays out of the hinterlands (Hudson Valleyites take note: a TJ’s is opening this August in Colonie – woot!) But while TJ’s jam is fine, it’s just not as good as the homemade stuff.

Plus, we had so much fun picking strawberries last summer (we froze most of them to use in smoothies and sauces), that we decided to increase the size of our haul this summer and expand our preserving efforts to include jam.

Despite the relatively rainy weather, we’ve found enough breaks in the gloom to go picking at two of our favorite local farms, Greig Farm in Redhook (if you have kids, plan to leave time to get ice cream and pet the goats at Gigi’s Market and to feed the extremely competitive koi in the pond behind Grandiflora) and Story Farms in Catskill and have picked enough to freeze a bunch AND to make a decent sized batch of this divine strawberry jam.

If you’re new to canning, this is a great thing to start with since it’s fairly straightforward and the end result is both yummy and beautiful to behold.

Also, the smell that will fill your house while you’re simmering the jam on the stove is nothing short of divine – so sweet and summery it almost makes you want to cry. This smell stands in stark contrast to the intensely vinegary odor that pervades every nook and cranny of your house when you pickle foods — that smell will also make you want to cry, but not in a good way…

A few notes before you begin:

Don’t skip the macerating step if possible. If you don’t have time to let them sit overnight, even an hour is better than nothing.

And don’t cut any corners on your fruit – preserve the freshest and best berries you can find!

This recipe is adapted from a few sources including one of my favorite books, Put ‘Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton as well as the divine strawberry vanilla jam recipe in Marisa McClellan’s wonderful new book, Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round. I have more cookbook recommendations, info, recipes and links to great resources for you on my canning and preserving page.

Next: Get the recipe!

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Howard C.

5:26AM PDT on Jul 5, 2012

My neighbour makes great jam, I make lemon curd, we swop jars, best of both worlds.

July 5
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Mari s.

3:43PM PDT on Jul 4, 2012

Mmmmmm tytyvm :)

July 4
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Joe R.

8:22AM PDT on Jul 4, 2012

Thanks.

Susan A.

12:24AM PDT on Jul 4, 2012

Thanks so much for the article and specifics of how to make strawberry jam...yum!

Past Member .

4:29PM PDT on Jun 15, 2012

How many of the stardard packages of pectin will I need if this recipe calls for 8 tablespoons?

June 15
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4:27PM PDT on Jun 15, 2012

How many packages of the standard pectin will I need if the recipe calls for 8 tablespoons of pectin?

4:23PM PDT on Jun 15, 2012

I am making jam for the very first time and I am using this recipe. It calls for 8 tbsp of pectin. Is this equivalent to 2 boxes of the standard pectin?

Tammie C.

8:29AM PDT on Jun 15, 2012

sounds delicious, but so time consuming for a first timer....

Ela V.

9:52AM PDT on Jun 14, 2012

Yummy! Thanks for the recipe! I was preparing to do strawberry jam!

June 14
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Eternal G.

6:34PM PDT on Jun 13, 2012

Brings back memories of my mum, cooking blackberry jam of the mountains of big black berries my sister and I used to pick in a derelict orchard... real hunting for treasure!