As many of you know, I live in a fairly compact apartment (remember these pictures of my kitchen?). My husband and I have something in the neighborhood of 1,050 square feet that we call our own. In the last three years, my canning habit has expanded and between empty jars, full jars and equipment, occupies a goodly amount of our available storage space. Over the last 12 months, it was necessary as I was creating and testing recipes for my cookbook project.
This summer, I’ve decided that it’s time to scale back just a bit. And though I love having enough to give away to friends and family, I just don’t need to make vast batches of strawberry jam that yield five or six pints. For my own use, just a few half pint jars will most certainly do. And so I’m going to try something new here on the blog. Every week or two, I’ll be posted a recipe under the header “Urban Preserving.” These recipes will be small batch preserves, all scaled to use just a pint, a quart or pound of produce. The yields will be petite, perfect for those of you who have small households or are short on space, time or cash.
Before I left town for the Memorial Day holiday, I turned a quart of strawberries into three half pints of strawberry vanilla jam. I bought the berries on a Sunday, chopped them up when I returned home from the farmers’ market and tossed them with a cup of sugar and two split vanilla beans. Poured into a jar, the berries took a three-day rest in the refrigerator. I didn’t actually intend to let them macerate for that long, but as so often happens, life was busy and I just could not find the time to make jam until Wednesday night.
One of the true joys of small batch canning is that there’s no need to pull out a giant pot to serve as your water bath. A small one does the job just fine. I have two such pots that work well as a tiny canning pot. The first is the asparagus pot that I wrote about here. The second is the tall, spouted pot
Called a 4th burner pot, this is truly one of the best and most versatile pieces of cookware I own. I love it for making pickles, because you can heat the brine in it and then pour it directly into the jars. It makes the perfect gravy pot during the holidays. It can double as a tea kettle. And because it’s got that rack, it makes a terrific small batch canning pot. See how perfectly those three half-pint Elite jars fit into it?
So, to catch up, I poured the jar of chopped, macerated strawberries into a 5 1/2 quart pot. I added an additional cup of sugar (bringing the total to 2 cups) and removed the vanilla bean pods. I turned up the heat and inserted a thermometer to track the temperature. I cooked the jam to 220 degrees and also eyeballed the back of the spoon, rivulet test. A lemon’s worth of juice and zest went it towards the end of cooking.
There’s another reason that making small batch jam is so satisfying. Because there’s less volume in the pot, it cooks down more quickly. That means it’s easier to get it to 220 degrees and often means that you can skip the pectin in recipes that might otherwise need it (I know that there are some of you who eschew the pectin entirely, but I’ve always found it necessary when making strawberry jam). Shorter cooking time also means a fresher tasting jam and such glowing color!
The jam was poured into the hot half pint jars (it fit exactly, but I scraped every droplet out of the pot to ensure evenly filled jars), lids were applied and the jars were stacked into the rack. Lowered into the pot, they spent 10 minutes simmering in the handy 4th burner pot.
Within 45 minutes of when I turned on the heat under my jam pot, the jars were out of the canner and pinging on the counter top. I took one jar up to Northampton last weekend to share with our hosts. The other two jars are tucked away for next winter.
A non-narrative, traditionally organized recipe is after the jump.
Ingredients
- 1 quart strawberries (a little over 1 1/2 pounds, should be approximately 4 cups of chopped berries)
- 2 cups sugar, divided
- 2 vanilla beans, split and scraped
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
Instructions
- Wash and chop berries. Toss them with 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla beans/seeds and place in a large jar or bowl.
- Allow the berries to macerate for at least 2-3 hours and up to 72 hours.
- When you're ready to make the jam, prepare three half pint jars.
- Pour macerated strawberries into a large pot and add the remaining cup of sugar.
- Bring to a boil and cook until the jam reaches 220 degrees, stirring very regularly.
- Add the lemon zest and juice in the final 5 minutes of cooking.
- Once the jam has reached 220 degrees, remove the pan from the heat.
- Pour jam into your prepared jars.
- Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in your canner for 10 minutes (normally I'd admonish you not to start your timer until the water has returned to a boil. However, as long as your water is quite hot when the jars go into the canner, the time it will take to return to boiling should be minimal).
- When time is up, remove jars from canner and let them cool on a towel-lined counter top.
- When jars are cool enough to handle, remove rings and check seals.
- If any jars are not sealed, store them in the fridge and use them first.
- Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place.
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Hi, I always use the pomona pectin and follow their recipe for canning (less sugar). is it ok to just add vanilla and lemon, and then follow the pomona recipe for the remainder? thanks!
Michele, I believe you should be able to do just that.
Thank you! One more question – I just found your website a week after you were in Blooming Glen, which is just a few minutes away. But a trip to the city is always fun, so we’d like to take a class at Greensgrow. Just wondering if there is an age restriction – can I sign my 15 yr. old up?
[...] I scanned the ever interesting, well-written, Food In Jars blog and found a simple, small batch canning recipe for Strawberry Vanilla Jam. [...]
[...] 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 [...]
We went strawberry picking yesterday and I’m excited to try this as my entry into canning. I’ve got one quart of strawberries macerating with vanilla, but I also did another quart and added a spoonful of cocoa powder instead of vanilla beans. Can I just continue with the recipe from there or will that change it enough that it’s not safe to can? I’ve seen lots of cautions about untested recipes.
[...] I use my silicone trivet canning rack (middle picture) with both of those pots. The final pot is my beloved 4thburner pot. It can hold two wide mouth half pints or three Elite half pint [...]
Just made a batch of this tonight. It smelled so heavenly while boiling, but the bit I’ve tasted from the pan now that the jars are cooling is overwhelmingly lemony with hardly any vanilla.
Is this just the way it is? If I make it again, can I omit the lemon or is that necessary for safety purposes?
I also always try to reduce the sugar in any recipe I make so I just stuck with 1 cup of sugar plus a good dollop of honey for this and it seems plenty sweet. Do you ever use honey or maple syrup instead of white sugar in your jams?
[...] enjoy reading Food In Jars and I was eyeing her Strawberry Vanilla jam recipe, and based mine on [...]
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i LOVE this recipe and have used it numerous times.
would it work for similar berries – black raspberries of example? i have about a quart or so. thanks.
You could certainly use it with black raspberries. They make such gorgeous jam!
sweet. i guess i was just curious if strawberries had more natural pectin or something that would hinder the jam.
do you have a list or anything anywhere (or know where i can find one) that details the natural pectin in fruits?
So I love this site and ordered the new book! I tried making this recipe (strawberry vanilla jam) but it didn’t turn out
I’m wondering what went wrong?! I used powered pectin instead of liquid (but converted the ratios to match liquid) but wondered if that was the problem? I also ended up with half the amount of jars I was supposed to get…I measured the strawberries after washed, hulled and cut…wrong?
Trina, I’m so sorry to hear that you had issues with this recipe. I’ve made it many times without issue. Are you sure you made this exact small batch recipe? Because there’s actually no pectin in it.
Marisa, it sounds like she made the Strawberry Vanilla jam recipe from the cookbook, not this small batch one.
I just finished up a batch of the cookbook version right now myself.
[...] A small batch recipe for Strawberry-Vanilla Jam (I used the 4 pint recipe in Food In [...]
[...] I dragged my boyfriend strawberry picking with me a few weeks back. It was nearing the end of strawberry picking season, and we just managed to eke out enough berries from the plants to cook up into jam. I went ahead and bought some extra berries from the store, but I kept our just-picked berries separate and made them into a batch of strawberry jam with vanilla beans. The recipe is from Food in Jars (website) and can be found here. [...]
Just made your jam and it was super tasty. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi, I would like to try the 4th burner pot for processing, but I’m a beginner and would need specific instructions. How high do you fill it up with water? And do you put the lid on? Thanks for your kind assistance!
Marlen, you fill the pot up with water so that the jars are completely submerged and then you put the lid on.
Perfect, thank you Marisa for the quick reply
Now I just have to figure out how to order the pot (just found out that it’s only available in the US; I live in Switzerland which is actually the home of Kuhn Rikon….) Thanks again and I’m looking forward to small batch canning.
Marlen, I very recently purchased mine off eBay and also found the asparagus pot on there as well for extremely reasonable prices, even with the shipping & handling charges to Canada! Hope that helps!
[...] Strawberry Vanilla Jam from Food in Jars [...]
[...] next time. Still, a fun little (really little) project and pretty tasty. Experimental jam-making does not have to be a big commitment so throw stuff together and see what [...]
So it’s ok to stack jars while canning then? I would have thought you wouldn’t want anything touching the lid and potentially messing with the seal.
Hi, going to try this recipe, first time canning. Question, what is the rivulet test?
It’s also known as the sheet test and is described in this post: http://www.foodinjars.com/2010/07/canning-101-how-to-ensure-that-your-jam-sets/
Help! I totally spaced out!
I am a huge mutitasker, and sometimes things slip by me.
I just noticed my jar of strawberries, Vanialla bean and sugar in my fridge as I was pulling out some peppers. I placed the berries in to macerate 9 days ago!
The berry mixture is in a glass jar with a lid, no air.
I hate to toss but 9 days…any hope?
Sarah, smell it. If it smells okay, give it a tiny taste. If it tastes okay, make the jam.
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[...] When strawberries are in season again in your neck of the woods, make this jam. There’s a small-batch version of the recipe as well, so you really have no excuse. You’re [...]
Do you have to use the lemon? Can you use lemon juice if so and how much? I wanna try this later, however I cant find vanilla bean
so I’m just have to do with out until I can track it down!
Made it today and hooya is it yummy! I actually did 7 pints. No lemons or vanilla beans, so used 2 t. Lemon concentrate and 1 t. Vanilla. And my secret…1 drop of almond extract!
Hi!
I just finished making yet another batch of your oh-so-yummy jam! I quite recently began making tentative steps into this wonderful world of canning and your small-batch recipes are just perfect for me! My eldest daughter is a huge fan of yours & quickly pointed me towards your blog when I called to ask for yet more advice as I tried my very first batch of jam. Sadly that one didn’t turn out (syrup anyone?!) but after I began reading my way through this fantastic site I quickly discovered what I did wrong and was able to fix it the next go ’round.
I decided to be brave & “mix things up a touch” after the great success I had with the other batches so this time I added raspberries to the mix, being sure to increase the other ingredients as well. Turned out terrific (or so the family says, lol) and all credit & many thanks to you & your wonderful blog. Without your blog with it’s easy to understand step-by-step articles, pictures, FAQ’s and recipes I would never have experienced the immense satisfaction that comes from knowing “I made that!” And also the “joy of the Ping” (lol).
So thank you. PLEASE keep your Urban canning recipes coming and as I gain confidence I will eventually try my hand at the larger recipes in your latest beautiful book (I just got it the other day & am thrilled with it btw!).
With warm regards,
Wendy Harrison
Edson AB, Canada
[...] Strawberry vanilla jam [...]
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[...] Strawberry Vanilla Jam, from Food in Jars [...]
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