I heard a lot about this method last year, but it was after I had already made strawberry jam. Somehow it popped into my head as I pulled out the pectin last Saturday to start in on a batch of jam. I put the pectin away and did a quick Google search. I was a little shocked that I had trouble finding a recipe. For some reason 3 day potty training trended high up in the results list. I finally found this blog post: Strawberry Preserves.
The jam turned out amazing. I had purchased organic strawberries at the Grand Lake Farmer’s Market and they sure were pretty ones. This is by far the best strawberry jam I’ve ever had. Was it the strawberries, the method or both? Probably both. It’s a softish jam, but I could have made it thicker with further boiling.
My take on Jenn Martin’s recipe, which itself was her take on three sources:
2 1/2 punds of strawberries, which was three baskets at my market
4 cups of sugar
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of butter
Day 1:
Wash, hull and cut the strawberries into big chunks. Add sugar and lemon juice. Stir. Put it into a lidded non-reactive container and then into the fridge, stirring when you remember to, at least a couple of times.
Day 2:
In a large pot, boil the mixture for 3 minutes, adding butter to prevent foaming. Return to the container and put it back in the fridge.
Day 3:
Put jars and lids on to boil to sterilize them. You’ll need 4-5 twelve ounce jars.
Put a small plate in the freezer.
Strain the berries from syrup. Boil the syrup in a large pot until it reaches 220°F on candy thermometer. Which is approximately 3 minutes of rolling boil. Go a bit longer if you want a thicker jam.
Add the berries back in and boil again until it reaches 220°F. Test the set by putting a small amount on that cold plate from the freezer. Then put the plate back in the freezer. If it gels up, you’re set. If not boil a bit longer and re-test.
Ladle into the jars, affix lids and bands. Put them into a water bath and process for 5 minutes. Remove and wait for the pings of the lids sealing.
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SEAN Nice, I did a similar one last year. Were all your strawberries fully ripe? If you use some underripe berries they have more pectin in them. Wednesday, June 8, 2011 – 07:43 AM PEPPERREED Perfect timing! I’m heading out to our farmers market’s Strawberry Festival today. Wednesday, June 8, 2011 – 11:35 AM SCOTT_D The berries I used were all pretty ripe. The jam is pretty soft. I have a second batch going and they’re a bit less ripe. Still, I plan to ad a couple of tablespoons of liquid pectin. I don’t really have a problem with pectin, I thought the method would intensify the flavors. Which I think it did. Wednesday, June 8, 2011 – 02:34 PM THE_MATT dang. we just jammed up all the strawberries i reckon we’ll be doing this year. i’ll have to keep this on hand for next year though. i had an idea like this in my head, and then just got overwhelmed by the huge pile of strawberries we’d picked, and didn’t really time the picking well to allow for such a lengthy processing period. i’m glad to hear that it worked well for you! Thursday, June 9, 2011 – 06:07 AM THE_MATT p.s. the color on that jam is gorgeous, by the way! Thursday, June 9, 2011 – 06:08 AM ROBERT This sounds similar to our recipe for strawberry jam which is to macerate the jam overnight in sugar, then cook up the next day with an equal volume of sugar and half a cup of lemon juice. It is a soft set jam that has an extremely concentrated strawberry taste. I am making more this weekend so will give this 3 day method a try (anything that accentuates the strawberry taste is a plus in my book). Tuesday, June 28, 2011 – 01:12 PM |