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Learning to Edit |
Strawberry Jam
The ingredients list is for 1 pint of jam. Looking at your strawberries, guess how many jars you will need. Put the jars in a hot water bath canner, and fill with enough water to just cover the jars. Set lids and rings aside. Turn on the stove to start heating water. If at any point it reaches a rolling boil before your jam is ready, turn it down to simmer. Hull and slice strawberries, measuring how the actual amount of fruit you will use. Adjust the proportion of sugar and pectin appropriately. Never make jam in batches larger than 5 pints, as it will not set. If you have two much fruit, freeze the excess. (Or turn into pie, or a second batch of jam, or just eat straight.) Put a layer of strawberries in the bottom of a large pot. They should fill no more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the pot. Crush the strawberries with a potato masher. Continue layering and crushing until all the strawberries have been added. Stir in the pectin. Bring the jam to a rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Stir very frequently to prevent burning. Stir in the sugar, and bring the jam back to a rolling boil. Boil constantly for 1 minute, then remove from heat. The jam will spit at you -- long sleeves and an apron are recommended. Remove hot jars from the canner, and fill with hot jam, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims, place lids on jars, and tighten rings to finger-tight. Return jars to canner. Verify that there is approximately 1 inch of water on top of the tallest jar, adding more water if necessary. Bring canner to a rolling boil. Keep at a boil for 10 minutes, then turn off heat and remove lid of the canner. Let stand 5 minutes. Set jars on a towel and leave 24 hours before checking the seals. Push on the center of the lid -- if you hear a popping noise, the seal is no good and that jar needs to refrigerated. Remove the rings, and test that the lids cannot be easily opened. If necessary wipe down and dry jars. Store without rings. |