How to make strawberry jam

Summer is not only the warmest time of the year, but also the most delicious. It is in summer that our gardens and orchards are filled with fresh vegetables, fruits and berries. But summer is quickly passing, and with it this gastronomic wealth is leaving. Therefore, many of us in the summer, in the midst of the berry and vegetable season, try to close as many jars as possible for the winter. In this article, we will talk about how to cook a delicacy loved by many – strawberry jam.

Subtleties of cooking strawberry jam

Strawberry or, as it is also called, garden strawberry is a very tasty, but very capricious berry. To make strawberry jam and not be disappointed with the end result, you need to carefully approach the choice of berries. Beautiful and incredibly tasty strawberry jam will turn out only if the berries meet the following criteria:

1. They must be ripe. Unripe berries do not yet have a special berry flavor, so the jam from them will turn out tasteless. But too overripe berries will fall apart during the cooking process, so they can only be used for jam.
2. To make strawberry jam, you should choose berries of the same size. This is due to the fact that different-sized berries have different cooking times.

But it’s not enough just to make strawberry jam, you also need to keep all the benefits of berries in it. Cooking jam involves heat treatment, during which many vitamins are lost. And then a logical question arises: “So how much to cook strawberry jam so that it retains its benefits?”. It all depends on the specific recipe, but the longer the berries are cooked, the less useful vitamins remain in them. To avoid this unnecessary loss of the lion’s share of vitamins, the preliminary falling asleep of berries with sugar will help. The juice extracted from strawberries in a few hours will help speed up the cooking of jam, and therefore retain more nutrients.

Before you cook strawberry jam, you need to take care of the container in which it will close. For this, only glass jars are used, which must first be washed and sterilized. There are quite a few sterilization methods and any of them can be used with equal success. But if time is running out, then it is best to use the quick method of sterilization. Learn more about it in the video:

Now that all the subtleties have been considered, let’s talk about how to make strawberry jam.

Classic strawberry jam recipe

To make strawberry jam according to this recipe, we need a minimum set of ingredients:

• kilogram of berries;
• kilogram of sugar.

Those who like strawberry taste more can take strawberries instead of strawberries.

Before you cook strawberry jam, all the berries must be sorted out and cleaned of ponytails and leaves. After that, they should be washed under a weak stream of water and dried a little.

Now the prepared berries should be covered with sugar and left for a day to extract the juice. The more juice the berry gives, the tastier the jam will be. At the end of the specified time, sugar should not be visible at the bottom of the container, it should completely dissolve in the released juice. Now you can start cooking.

To do this, pour the berries together with the juice into an enamel basin and bring to a boil over medium heat. When the mass boils, the fire should be reduced and continue cooking for 5 minutes. After that, the fire must be turned off, and the jam should be cooled and left to infuse for 24 hours. After this time, the cooking procedure should be repeated. At the same time, for the second time, it is necessary to remove the resulting foam from the almost ready-made strawberry delicacy.

Pour the boiled jam into jars while still hot and close the lids. After the jars of treats have cooled down, they can be stored in a cool place.

Strawberry Five Minute

Strawberry jam, the recipe of which we will consider below, is prepared extremely quickly. The answer to the question: “How much to cook jam according to this recipe” is hidden in its name. The whole cooking process will not last longer than 5 minutes, which means that the nutrients in such a delicacy will be preserved.

For cooking you will need:

• kilogram of strawberries;
• kilogram of sugar;
• a tablespoon of lemon juice.

An unsightly berry is also quite suitable. When the delicacy is cooked, it will still not be visible.

Berries, as always, must be cleaned and washed. Now they need to be cut in half. This is done so that in 5 minutes of cooking they are able to fully boil. After that, they must be covered with sugar and left for several hours to extract the juice.

When the juice from the berries stands out, you can start preparing treats. The stove should be put on low heat and cook strawberries with sugar for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. During the cooking process, it will be seen that the berries will begin to secrete more juice, while forming foam. It is recommended to remove it only with a wooden spoon or spatula.

At the end of cooking, add lemon juice and turn off the stove. Now it remains only to pour the finished delicacy into pre-sterilized jars and close them with lids. Before the jam is completely cooled, it should be turned upside down.

Jam with whole strawberries

As you can see in the photo below, the jam cooked according to this recipe is distinguished by its not just good, but excellent appearance. The berries seemed to have left the garden and lay down to rest in sweet syrup.

To prepare it you need:

• 3 kilograms of strawberries;
• 2 kilograms of sugar.

The process of cooking such a jam is not much different from other recipes considered. But due to the fact that we need to preserve the integrity of the structure of the berries, we must handle them very carefully during cooking.

Berries should, as always, be cleaned, washed and dried, while trying not to crush or damage their shape. After that, the berries should be put in a deep enameled container and covered with sugar. In this form, they should stand for 6 hours.

When 6 hours have passed, you can start cooking. Berries with juice should be brought to a boil over medium heat, periodically removing foam from them.

Cooking takes place in 3 stages:

1. When the mass boils, you need to pour 400 grams of sugar and reduce the heat. After that, cooking continues for 10 minutes. Then, the jam is removed from the stove and infused for 10 hours.
2. The second time, the jam should also boil, but you already need to add 300 grams of sugar to it. The infusion time is the same – 10 hours.
3. All the remaining sugar is added to the final boil, but the almost finished delicacy should boil for no more than 5 minutes.

It should be poured into jars while still hot, and stored after cooling in a dark and cool place.

These simple recipes are suitable even for novice cooks. The main thing is not to exceed the recommended cooking time and believe in yourself.