The path to the best damned strawberry jam you ever had
is easy, with only one rule to remember:
small batches, quickly. That’s
it! No magic ingredient, no Iron Chef
skill, no banging around.
Waiting for a glut is the worst time to make strawberry jam. As soon as you increase quantities, cooking
time increases, and your window of opportunity to make the queen of all jams
slams shut, shaking the frame a little.
Instead of the remarkably fresh flavour of this jam, you’ll have cloying
sweetness. Instead of a glorious ruby
red, the jam will be dark and impenetrable.
And instead of gorgeous chunks of candied strawberry on your piece of
bread, you’ll just have a smooth mass, since the longer cooking time will break
the fruit down. (If ever you have a glut
of strawberries that need to be preserved, I strongly recommend the
freezer. They may lose texture but not
flavour, and your options for using them are much wider; you can even make jam
from a cup or two of the frozen fruit.)
I’m not a microwave devotee by any means, but I’ll go on
the record as saying that this jam is better than anything you could ever make
on the stove. Truly-rooly. Hand on my heart. It illustrates the best thing about
preserving in the mikey: freshness and
spontaneity. Have a punnet of
strawberries? Make jam! One punnet is just enough to make one
decent-sized jar, or two smaller ones, in the time it takes for you to have a
cup of tea, and indeed, you can sip your tea as you work.
So you can make a jar.
Make one often. And you’ll
thereafter wonder what the heck that stuff on the supermarket shelves is. And presented with even the most expensive
commercial “gourmet” jam, oh, how you’ll scoff.
Local winter strawberries: they weren't ever going to be good eating - at least, not without some serious doctoring - but they make a jam that is far greater than the sum of its parts. |
No, put the spoon and the clotted cream down, you can't eat them yet. |
These viscous bubbles, along with the spoon test and… |
… the saucer test, means that… |
… the jam is ready to pot up. |
Yumbo McGillicutty! |
THE BEST DAMNED STRAWBERRY JAM YOU EVER HAD
(makes 1 medium or 2 small jars)
Ingredients:
250g. strawberries (2 cups approx.)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tbsp. lemon juice
What you do:
1. Hull
strawberries and cut any extra-large ones in half. Put them in a large microwave-safe bowl with
sugar and lemon juice. Cover, and cook
on HIGH for 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve
sugar.
2. Cook,
uncovered, on HIGH for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until jam reaches
setting point. Allow to cool for 5-10
minutes, then give jam a final stir (this step is optional, but allows the
pieces of fruit to be evenly distributed through the jam). Pour into warm, sterilised jars, and seal.
Wow oh wow. Look at the color of that jam. It's absolutely gorgeous. I adore strawberry jam over any other. Next spring when our strawberries are ripe, I'm making me this.
ReplyDeleteYou've got your own strawberries? Eeeee! It'll be so much better than mine, then. Any strawberries I've ever been able to grow just get eaten off the bush. Let me know how you go. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd by "bush", I mean plant. That's the way we expert gardeners talk. Yeah.
ReplyDelete