Ingredients
- 500 grams strawberries
- 750 grams sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
- Hull the strawberries and cut into half. For large strawberries cut into quarters.
- Place the strawberries in a large saucepan. Cook gently, uncovered, for approximately 15 minutes. Stir the strawberries frequently to ensure they don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Add the sugar and cream of tartar to the saucepan. Stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove the jam from the heat and stir it as it cools a little.
- Divide the jam between hot and sterilized jars. Seal the jars and allow the jam to cool completely.
When I think of homemade strawberry jam I get transported back to memories of a young child, where I use to watch grandma picking fresh strawberries from the garden and bringing them in to make jam.
These days, strawberry jam has become one of my favorite spreads. It goes great on fresh scones, morning toast, or whatever you love to eat jam on. Bottled up nicely it can also make a great homemade gift.
Preparing the Strawberry Jam
The first part to making this simple jam is to get everything prepared ready to go. Weigh out your sugar and cream of tartar into a bull and prepare the strawberries. For the strawberries, they will need to be hulled and then cut in half. For larger strawberries I prefer to cut them into quarters.
Take the prepared strawberries and add them to a large saucepan. I find a good quality stainless steel saucepan is the way to go here but use what you have available.
Over a gentle heat, cook the strawberries for approximately 15 minutes. This will start to break the berries down. Ensure you stir the strawberries on a regular basis through this process to stop them sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Next, add in your sugar and cream of tartar. At this point you now want to increase the heat to bring the jam to a gentle boil. Continue cooking the jam for another 10-15 minutes. During this step, the jam should go a lovely darkish red color.
Once cooked, remove from the heat. Stir the jam as it cools a little.
Bottling up the Jam
The jam mixture will make approximately 3 cups. You will want a couple of larger jars or several small jars to store the jam in. First prepare the jars by placing clean jars in to hot water to sterilize them.
Remove the jars from the hot water just prior to filling with jam. I find using a wide funnel is the best way to cleanly fill a jar with jam. While hot, add the lids to the jar and allow the jam to completely cool and set in the sealed jars.
The cooked jam should last 2-3 months in the pantry unopened. Once open, store in the fridge until used.
