Posted by NickD (24.240.212.148) on April 16, 2001 at 08:17:33:
People that come over absolutely love fresh home made strawberry jam, but while this recipe is very simple, more folks has told me they blew it and got water instead of jam.
Been buying fresh strawberries, but those have to be cleaned, always find rotten ones in the bottom of the tray, and you have to cut those green things off, too much work, happened by the freezer section of my grocery store and they have fresh frozen strawberries, all cut and cleaned, and the price was cheaper than the fresh ones, does that make sense? Buy the package that says 16 oz and toss them in the refrigerator until you get to it, couple of days is fine. Also pick up 4 cups of sugar (may have to buy a five pound bag) and a box of Sure-Jel.
Dump the package of berries into a blender and kick off high speed, should make two cups of puree or whatever they call it, I don’t speak French, just chop the suckers, then dump this into a glass bowl and toss it in the microwave, about 2-3 minutes until the puree is warm, it's got to be warm, about 90F or this whole thing is off and you got a mess.
Slap in four cups of sugar, I use a hand mixer and let sit for at least ten minutes, could be a half an hour, who cares, but the puree can't be gritty, that's the reason for heating the berries in the microwave to totally dissolve the sugar.
Boil 3/4 cups of water, toss in the Sure-Jel stir for a minute and then dump this into the puree with the hand mixer grinding away, this sets up the jam. Pour into 1 pint Mason jars using a canning type funnel or you will get more jam on the outside of the jar than the inside. Let sit for 3-4 hours then toss in the freezer. After for sitting 3-4 hours at room temp. you should be able to turn the jars upside-down, if the puree sinks, you screwed up someplace, sure the puree was warm before adding the sugar? Waited ten minutes before adding the Sure-Jel?
The Sure-Jel instructions say the jam lasts about 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator, but the stuff really never gets that hard in the freezer compartment, and around here you don't know if a jar is going to last five minutes or six months so we keep in it the freezer. Ice cold jam on a hot buttered English muffin tastes great, could eat one right now except out of muffins.
Cost is 2 bucks for the Sure-Jel, kind of expensive and never on sale, another 2 for the strawberries, also been looking for fresh frozen peaches, that is also great jam, recipe makes 3 pints so figure a buck and a half per pint, much better and cheaper than that store made stuff. Doesn’t make much more of a mess by doubling this recipe. Blenders hold 5 cups, and you need four and almost as quick to boil 1 ½ cups of water and a four quart glass bowl doesn’t take that much more to clean than a two quart and you will get a half dozen jars to put in the freezer.
Won’t make CH’s go away, but is a treat after fighting the beast.