Several weeks ago, I got up early on Saturday morning, collected my friend Shay(she’s my regular fruit-picking buddy) and drove half an hour out into the New Jersey countryside. We spent the rest of the morning in the field of Gaventa’s strawberry farm, crouching over the rows of plants, plucking handfuls of berries into our containers. I stopped picked only when the back of my neck had turned a bright pink (I somehow only got sunscreen on my front, it made for an entertaining burn) and the knees of my jeans were stained red from kneeling on errant berries between the rows.
I brought home nearly 15 pounds of hard-earned berries (they were $1.35 a pound, I love how inexpensive things can be when you just invest a bit of your own labor). I washed and chopped nearly all of them (I kept about two quarts unchopped for plain old eating) within a couple of hours of getting them home. I tossed approximately 10 overflowing cups of the processed berries with two cups of sugar and a broken-up vanilla bean and then tucked them into the fridge for a rest, so that they could get nice and vanilla-y. The rest I frozen in quart-sized yogurt containers, using the sugar syrup method recommended by Doris and Jilly (if you haven’t checked out their site yet, do it. There’s lots of good preserving info there).
I actually left the strawberries in the fridge for nearly two days (and they were just fine) before I got around to making jam. When it came time to cook the berries down, I fished the vanilla pieces out (squeezing out the vanilla seeds so that the jam was beautifully flecked) and then poured the berries and all the juice they had produced into my 10 quart stainless steel pot (this stuff foams, so give yourself plenty of room). I added the rest of the sugar (five cups) and then proceeded to cook the crap out of those berries (that’s the official term) in order to assure a good, jammy set.
Of all the jams I’ve made so far this year, this one is my very favorite. There’s something special about strawberry jam and when it’s scented with vanilla and so rich in color, it’s just that much more amazing. Get yourself some strawberries and make this jam. Or, if you don’t feel like making your own batch, I do have one half pint jar to give away. Leave a comment by Friday afternoon for a chance to win.
Strawberry Jam Recipe
9-10 cups of chopped strawberries (preferably macerated with a split vanilla bean and two cups of sugar over night)
5 cups of sugar (this includes any sugar you added during the maceration step)
2 lemons, zested and juiced
2 packets of liquid pectin (that’s one box total)
Fill your canning pot 2/3 with water and put on the stove to bring to a boil (I used a large stock pot for this much jam).
Put berries, sugar and lemon zest/juice in a large pot and cook over medium high heat for about fifteen minutes. You want to really boil the fruit down so that they begin to look syrup-y. If you have an immersion blender, use it at this point to puree some of the fruit. If you don’t, use a blender to puree about half the jam (working in batches, you don’t want hot jam to splash you). Add the blended jam back to the whole fruit jam. Bring to a boil and squeeze in the pectin. At this point, there will be a bunch of foam on top of the jam. Skim the foam with a large spoon. Let boil for approximately ten minutes more, until the jam looks very syrup-y (when boiling, it should resemble boiling candy).
Lay out your clean jars, you’ll need approximately five pints or 10 half pint jars. Put your lids in a saucepan of hot water in order to soften the sealing compound. Bring a kettle to a boil now as well, in case you need a bit more boiling water for your canning pot.
Fill the jars. Wipe the rims with the edge of a towel dipped in boiling water. Top with lids and screw on rings. Put a rack or folded towel into the bottom of your canning pot (you don’t want the jars to be in direct contact with the bottom of your pot). Carefully lower the jars into the boiling water. You can stack them one on top of the other if need be.
Process for ten minutes in the boiling water. When time is up, remove the jars from the water and put them on a towel on the counter. They should begin to ping fairly quickly, indicated that they’re sealed. If any of your jars don’t seal, make sure to refrigerate them.
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[...] making this strawberry vanilla [...]
Hi Marisa,
We just moved to China from the US and I have no idea where to get pectin here. Could you please suggest a few substitutes for store bought pectin? I am dying to make some jam. I did try some small batches (don’t know where to buy cans either) of mango pineapple jam (using lemon) and that turned out really good but I did see someone mention in the comments that the lemon killed the flavour of the strawberries. The berries here in Shanghai aren’t super sweet, so I fear the lemon might not do much good
Thanks,
Veena.
Help! I made this recipe last year – loved the flavor, but the consistency was more sauce-like. Although, it was my first time canning, so I chalked it up to canning novice-ness. Anyway, made 4 batches this week, with about 18lbs of hard picked strawberries, and it still turned out really really runny. I remade about 4 pints of the jam thinking I might need to remake all 22 jars (ugh!). The pectin pkg says it could take up to 2 weeks, so I’ll compare them in a week or so. But, in the meantime, any thoughts? If I just recook it and make sure it hits 220* would that work to gel it up better?
Also, I used my copy of the recipe from last summer which says 7 cups of sugar (2 w/ the vanilla + 5 more during/at time of cooking).
Just wondering if you have any recipes {new to this site
} that you could use splenda or a generic? Don’t get me wrong I LOVE sugar but it doesn’t love me. 
Mandy, I don’t really do much with artificial sweeteners, they’re just not my thing. When I want to make a product that’s lower in sugar, I make a fruit butter instead of a jam. You cook it slowly for a long time, in order to remove the water and concentrate the natural sweetness. If you look at my recipe archive, you’ll find a whole section on fruit butters. My friend Shae did make a sugar-free jam recently using fruit juice as the sweetener. The post is here: http://hitchhikingtoheaven.com/2011/07/sugar-free-cherry-blueberry-jam-2.html
Thank you!!
[...] Strawberry-Vanilla Jam (recipe from Food In Jars) [...]
[...] decided to make preserves. I have tried many strawberry jam recipes, but the best by far comes from Food in Jars. I reduced the amounts by half, to accommodate my tiny pot, and at the last minute, threw in fresh [...]
I was perusing google for Strawberry Jam recipes when I came on yours. I made some and then designed a printable. I didn’t know if you would like it for yourself or not but I thought I would give you the link…
http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2011/08/strawberry-jam-labels.html
I love your site. You are truly an inspiration. I found it looking for a “how to” on homemade butter. I’d never considered canning before and I’ve since made the butter and all kinds of jams and pickles…even ketchup. Thanks for the motivation!
[...] from the blog Food in Jars. First-time canners can also glean from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, the National Center for [...]
I have been making jams,preserves,and butters all summer from not so sellable produce from the grocery store. I was intreiged with using a vanilla bean in the masserating process…… so got me thinking of making some home made pure vanilla extract… long story short bought 5 bourbon vanilla beans to make a first attempt at vanilla extract and did a double batch of your strawberry jam. I didn’t use the lemon and only used 4 cups of sugar, and 2 pouches of liquid pectin…. made 2 half pints and 6 pints with the last pint only 3/4 the way full…. Just pulled them out of the water bath…My BF tells me that I have bottled perfection….. (was hoping that there would be a smig left in the pan to go on an english muffin but alas it wasn’t the case). Hats off to you and your fab recipe.
I have a question. I’m making strawberry jam later this month, but I don’t have any special equipment (about to start law school = no money to buy equipment
). I making it with my cousin, and we decided that we’d just make enough for ourselves and maybe our families and that we wouldn’t preserve it. Someone suggested we just put it in cleaned mason jars and use it up in about a week. Is that doable? Is it okay to not sterilize/preserve so long as we eat it before it goes moldy? About how long would it be safe to eat? We like the idea of starting out simple without having to worry about the whole complicated preserving process.
Any tips would be much appreciated. We’re so excited about learning how to make jam, but feeling rather intimidated by the process. Thanks!
Rachel, if you’re making moderate amounts of jam, you can definitely skip the boiling water bath step and just refrigerate your full jars. It will last up to a month in the fridge like that.
Thanks so much!! I really appreciate it! Can’t wait to make it, and explore your blog more
I run a B&B here on the Eastern Mediterranean Island of Cyprus and have been making my own conserves for a good number of years. People just love the idea of their food being made from home grown produce. I have never used pectin or preserving sugar and have mixed other fruits in as well as vanilla, extract in my case as i can’t find the real thing here, and find that if you use the correct amount of sugar and cook for long enough you get a great consistency of jams/marmalades. My advice is don’t panic just go with the best recipe you can find, a matter of trial and error, and you can even use the errors…mix with yoghurt, add to fruit pies , crumbles…..ooooh endless delicious possibilities.
I used this recipe as the base for a batch of jam this weekend. I skipped the vanilla, substituted limes for lemons (juice from 3 limes, zest from 4.) It was a little more sour than I wanted, so I added an extra cup of sugar. I’m really pleased with the way it turned out! The strawberry flavor is strongest at the beginning, but the lime hits you on the backswing and builds bite after bite. I forgot to skim off the foam, so my jam has some pink frothy spots. Oh well, I’ll remember next time! I have enough strawberries for another batch of jam, and I think I’ll do the vanilla next.
Your blog has so much inspiration material! Thank you!
I just can’t stop making this stuff! The vanilla gives it such a subtle oomph!
When I saw this recipe, I was intrigued because usually jams and jellies have almost double the volume of sugar to fruit, which I find unattractive. It’s amazing that you’re able to reverse the amounts here and still come out with an amazing product. Mine turned a brilliant ruby red and is absolutely delicious. I even saved the skimmed foam and am using that. Thank you so much for making this awesome recipe available to the public! P.S. You pushed me to try something new: I’ve never used the liquid pectin (Certo, in my case) before.
Hi Marissa,
My strawberries are macerating as I type. I was reading the comment about the runny jam. How can I make mine not so runny? Do I add more sugar?