Strawberry jam our love:

we know, most of us buy fruit Jams from grocery stores that is not only preserved using chemicals but stays in inventories for some considerable amount of period as well, before it reaches to consumer market. This means most of the jam we eat is not fresh. The chemical preservatives are the only key ingredient that makes it survive for months.

So why should not I tell you, how to make strawberry Jam at home that is not just luscious but nutritious and unprocessed as well. This Italian recipe requires only 3 main ingredients to make strawberry Jam at home, and no preservative will be added.

Ingredients

500 gram White Sugar
1/2 Medium Size Lemon Juice
1 Kilogram Fresh Strawberries

Making:

Step 1: Preparing Strawberries
You need 1 kilogram of fresh Strawberries that you can buy from fruit section of your grocery store. In my case I wont ever use frozen strawberries that is stored in refrigerator because its all about taste and freshness.

Lets take get to the sink and start washing every strawberry individually so that we can clean up any possible bacteria, as it is necessary if we want to preserve it in a jar.

Washing Strawberries

After cleaning is complete, I am going to show you a tip to remove the inner hard center core of each strawberry without even cutting it. For that we will need a new plastic bendy straw.

I will hold each berry in left hand and straw in my right hand. Now insert the straw at the center of strawberry so that we can be push all through the center and all over to the next side of it. This way the central portion can be extracted from each strawberry like shown below, step-wise.

Inserting Straw To Remove Inner Hard Center Core

This is how it looks after we finish
Now we will set the stove timer to 70 second. I am using electronic stove, but you can cook on any traditional one.

Step 2: Adding Sugar

At this point I will want to transfer all strawberries to a pan and will pour all ½ kg of sugar on it. I will mix it using wooden spoon, so that it integrates with the fruit well towards the bottom of the pan.

how to make strawberry jam homemade

homemade strawberry jam recipe
Now at medium flame with a timer of 70 second, we are going to stir both sugar and strawberries. Let the sugar dissolve in it until white spots of sugar vanishes and convert into paste.

Stirring with Wooden Spoon

Step 3: Pouring Lemon Juice
We are going to add half lemon juice that we already extracted. Lemon juice does two things, first it slightly works as a preservative as it contains ascorbic acid that functions as antioxidant that can prevent spoilage and rotting, second it is full of pure vitamin C.

Pouring Lemon Juice

Step 4: Adding Some Water
Adding half glass of water in the mixture so that the fruit and sugar can be well softened and converted into paste. Stir it well so that the fruit and sugar doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. You would see that the water starts changing its color to red.

Addition of Water

Step 5: Adding Vanilla Powder
Now you can see that the after a while, the paste color is converted from light red to dark brownish red and the paste is thick now. Now we are going to add less than half of one tablespoon of vanilla powder in the paste.

Vanilla Powder

Now i will if the jam thickness is all set. Its up-to you how much thickness you want. In my case I would wait until the water evaporates and it takes the shape of exact jam that we by from store.

Step 6: Sterilizing Jar

Now we are in the last section of this recipe. I am going to sterilize my jar for 45 seconds on medium temperature in the oven, before preserving this jam. The more you sterilize, the more the jar is going to be clean from bacteria that helps the jam to preserve for long time.

canning strawberry jam

Killing Bacteria by Sterilizing Jar
One more thing, make sure the jar is not made of soda glass or it may break in the oven as it cant bear that much temperature.

So always buy oven friendly jars for preserving cuisines. After 45 seconds of sterilizing in the oven, its ready to fill it up with the fresh hygienic Jam. Now you can serve it up with either bread, bun or cookies if your children like it that way.

how to make strawberry jam for cake

So today we learnt how to make strawberry jam homemade and fill up over jar for long term use.