Capture all the sweet flavor of summer’s strawberry bounty with this simple, traditional strawberry jam recipe. The recipe makes plenty of strawberry jam, so you’ve got plenty to eat and share.

Strawberry Jam Recipe

Yields about 8 pints

Ingredients

8 cups hulled strawberries (5 cups crushed strawberries; see recipe procedures, below)
7 cups sugar
1 1  3/4-ounce package powdered fruit pectin

Directions

Wash and sort the strawberries quickly in cold water; drain in a colander. Hull the strawberries, using a strawberry huller.

Measure 8 cups hulled strawberries. in a flat-bottomed pan, crush the strawberries, 1/3 at a time, using a pastry blender.

Do not puree the strawberries; leave nice-sized pieces, which will be attractive in the jam. Place the crushed strawberries, with the juice, in a mixing bowl.

Measure 5 cups crushed strawberries, including the juice, and place in an 8-quart, heavy-bottomed, stainless steel kettle; set aside. Place the sugar in a large mixing bowl; set aside.

Drain hot, sterilized, half-pint jars, upside down, on a clean tea towel; let stand.

Add the pectin to the crushed strawberries in the kettle; stir well to combine. Over high heat, bring the strawberry mixture to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Immediately add the sugar and return the strawberry mixture to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring continuously. Boil the mixture at a rolling boil exactly 1 minute (use a timer), stirring constantly. Immediately remove from the heat and skim the foam off the strawberry jam, using tableware tablespoons and teaspoons.

Using a 1-cup measuring cup with a pouring spout, quickly pour the hot jam into the drained jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Wipe the jar rims and threads. Place hot, metal lids on the jars and screw the bands firmly.

Process in a boiling-water canner for the time shown in the processing times chart at the end of this recipe.

Remove the jars from the canner and place them on a dry, wooden board that has been covered with a tea towel. Let the jars stand, undisturbed, 12 hours to cool completely.

Canning Processing Times

For Half-Pint Jar Sizes
Altitude of Canning Location
0 to 1,001 ft: 5 minutes
1,000 ft to 6,000 ft: 10 minutes
6,000 ft+ : 15 minutes

Related stories

Strawberry and Cream Doughnuts Recipe

Tart, Sweet and Fresh: 11 Springtime Vegan Dessert Recipe Ideas

Recipe courtesy of Blue Ribbon Country Canning Cookbook by Diane Roupe.

Photos by Erin Scott (Egg & Dart Press, 2013).

The post Blue Ribbon Country Canning: Strawberry Jam Recipe appeared first on EcoSalon.

Rhubarb is meant for more than just pie.

Currently I’m in Sweden taking care of an old house in the countryside. It’s as beautiful and lovely as its sounds. In the garden there is rhubarb, stinging nettles and leeks. The strawberries are flowering which shows that there will be delicious and fresh treats to pick in a couple of weeks . The deep red poppies are surrounded by bumblebees and the fish are jumping in the pond.

This weekend I had some dear friends over for dinner. I had successfully baked sourdough bread which we enjoyed with dried sausage, aged goat cheese and olives while my friend Johan prepared the rooks that was one of the sensations of the evening. The rooks are a delicacy similar to quail. In this part of Sweden there is an old tradition for farmers to hunt them as the birds often collect the seeds from the new seeded fields. Instead of just feeding them to the pigs, my friends and I had the pleasure to enjoy them with a creamy porcini mushroom sauce spiced with plenty of wine and herbs from the garden.

For dessert my Sofi Meijling made a Cardamom Panna Cotta with a jam she cooked with freshly picked rhubarbs from my vegetable plot. The panna cotta was made with both heavy cream and Greek yogurt (about 50/50) which gave the pannacotta a slight sour flavor (see example of other panna cotta recipes below). Sofi used about one teaspoon crushed cardamom to flavor this evening’s final dish.

This rhubarb jam was such a great reminder of how much I love having a vegetable garden. You don’t really need mush to make something so simply delicious.

Sofi’s Caramelized Rhubarb Jam
(for about 4 people as topping to pannacotta or ice cream)

About 6 rhubarb stalks
2 tablespoons regular sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar (Sofi used Swedish farin which is a similar sugar type)
1/3 cup water

Melt the sugar in a pan together with the water and let it cook for awhile. Keep an eye on the sugar so it doesn’t burn and stir a little now and again. You may need to lower the heat to medium. Clean the rhubarb and cut them into one inch long pieces. When the sugar is thick and sticky add the rhubarb and let them simmer until soft but not totally mushy. Set aside to cool before serving.

If you think this jam is too simple you can spice it up with either ginger, cardamon or licorice root.

The jam is also great together with aged cheese on bread but then I recommend you make a larger batch (just add more of everything).

Here are some Pannacotta recipes:

• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall makes Yoghurt and Vanilla Panna Cotta
• Jules Clancy makes Panna Cotta with Mascarpone and serves it with pot roasted pears.
• Ilva Beretta spices her Panna Cotta with lavender.

Illustration by Johanna Kindvall

The post Recipe: Swedish Rhubarb Jam appeared first on EcoSalon.