Strawberry jam is the classic summer jam, and well worth making if you have access to lots of berries. Pick you own fruit farms are always good fun and prices can be around half of what you pay in the supermarkets and you also get to choose which berries to have, which in most cases for jam should be slightly under ripe.

Making strawberry jam is extremely simple, but care should be taken to get the setting point as strawberries are low in pectin and can often result in a runny jam. For this reason it's safer to use under ripe fruit (pectin levels are higher) and add the lemon juice as stated in the recipe.

  See here for the strawberry jam recipe.

Recipe Costs

£3.95 1 kg strawberries (hulled and wiped)
£0.35 juice of 1 large lemon
£0.82 1 kg granulated sugar
£5.12 Total
£3.93 per kg of jam (90% of the cost of quality jam)

The strawberries are hulled (stalk removed - just pinch it out, you can get nifty little gadgets for doing this).
They don't need to be washed unless very dirty, if they are wet, let them dry.

Squeeze out the juice of one lemon, or use around 75ml of bottled lemon juice. Microwaving the lemon for 10 seconds before squeezing will help release the most juice.

Bring the strawberries and lemon juice to a simmer in a preserving pan and simmer for about 10 minutes until the juices run, then mash to a pulp with a potato masher.

Simmer for a further 5 minutes to thicken the pulp, then add the sugar, granulated is fine, although in this case I mixed in about 250g of preserving sugar as well just to be on the safe side with pectin levels. Warm it in a baking tray in the oven at 100°C  for 20 minutes before hand, which helps it dissolve quicker.

Adding the sugar to the fruit is always spectacular with red berries, the contrasting colours mixing together look delicious.

Stir the jam on a gentle heat until all the sugar is dissolved, then bring to a rolling boil for 5 minutes and test for setting point.
It may take several tries until the jam is ready, keep testing every few minutes.

Allow the jam to cool slightly before potting in sterilised jars.

Recipe Timings

10 minutes Preparation
20 minutes Simmering and mashing
15 minutes Boiling
15 minutes Bottling

Taste Test

Can't beat it. Fresh, fruity, great on toast.