Canning & Preserving
Our Traditional Strawberry Jam
When the strawberry bed gives us more than we can eat fresh, the rest becomes jam. We make the traditional full-sugar Sure-Jell recipe straight from the insert in the box — it sets reliably every time, and it's the jam our kids ask for on biscuits all winter.
Before You Start: Canning Safety
Follow the recipe insert that comes in your box of pectin. Pectin brands and types are not interchangeable, and cutting the sugar in a full-sugar recipe will keep it from setting.
Strawberry jam is high-acid, so a boiling water bath is appropriate. Process for the time your recipe and altitude call for.
Starting with our own berries
The strawberries come from the one raised bed we keep, which means jam season is short and busy. We wash, hull, and crush the berries — crushed, not puréed, so there's still fruit to find in the jar.
Making the jam
Crushed berries and Sure-Jell go into the pot and come to a hard rolling boil, then the sugar goes in all at once. Back to a rolling boil for exactly one minute, off the heat, skim the foam, and it's ready for jars.
Filling and processing
Hot jam goes into hot half-pint jars with ¼ inch of headspace. Rims wiped, lids finger-tight, then a boiling water bath for the time our recipe calls for. We let the jars sit overnight before we move them.
How it sets
Jam looks alarmingly thin in the jar the first hour. Give it a full day — sometimes two — before deciding anything about the set. Ours almost always firms up beautifully overnight.
Printable Recipe Card
Our Traditional Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
- 5 cups crushed strawberries (about 2 quarts ripe strawberries)
- 1 box Sure-Jell original (yellow box) pectin
- 7 cups granulated sugar, measured out and ready
- ½ tsp butter, optional, to reduce foaming
- 8 half-pint jars with new lids and clean rings
Instructions
- 1Wash, hull, and crush the strawberries one layer at a time; measure exactly 5 cups of crushed fruit.
- 2Stir the pectin into the fruit in a large pot, add the butter if using, and bring to a full rolling boil over high heat.
- 3Add all the sugar at once, stir, and return to a full rolling boil for exactly 1 minute.
- 4Remove from the heat and skim off any foam.
- 5Ladle into hot half-pint jars leaving ¼ inch headspace, wipe the rims, and seat the lids finger-tight.
- 6Process in a boiling water bath for the time your recipe and altitude call for, then cool undisturbed overnight.
Helpful Tips
Measure the sugar before you start — once the fruit boils there is no time to catch up.
Crush the berries rather than blending them so the jam still has texture.
Do not reduce the sugar in a full-sugar pectin recipe unless you switch to a low-sugar pectin made for it.
Products Used
- Water bath canner with rack
- Half-pint jars
- Wide canning funnel
- Jar lifter
