Today I made jam. Yes, grandmother dearest would be proud. I had 9 pounds of strawberries to do something with so we have been eating them nonstop. It was a very simple and easy recipe. And the final product was {give to your neighbors} worthy.
4 cups of crushed strawberries -I did this in my blender
4 cups sugar - I only used 3 cups
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
In a large heavy sauce pan, mix sugar, berries and lemon juice. Stir on low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C)
Transfer to hot sterile jars. Process any unsealed jars in a water bath. If jam is going to be eaten right away, don't bother processing, and just refrigerate.
To test for jelling
Place 2 plates in the freezer. After about 10 minutes of boiling, place a teaspoon of the liquid of the jam onto a cold plate and return to freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate...if it doesn't run back together then its ready to be canned!
(I couldn't find my candy thermometer, I believe its in the toy box upstairs and didn't want to look for it so I just did the plate test and it worked fine.)
I ended up with 4 1/2 eight ounce jars of jam.
