“The canning adventures continue…and it’s getting good. My skills that is!”
–Silent Echo
The less fancy way of saying the next step is “remove the nasty tops of strawberries, rinse them off and start smashing them to pieces in mixing bowl with hulk hand power.”
I am proud to say that it took almost no time at all to get 6 lbs. of strawberries processed into 7 delicious quart jars of homemade JAM! Initially I was nervous about buying so many strawberries since I really didn’t know what I was doing.
Since I was processing fruits, I used my big boiler pot. My uncle invested in my canning adventures and bought me a GIANT pressure cooker that is the real deal. This pressure cooker is gorgeous! It cuts time in half with the amount of jars you can fit in it at once. You can process up to 19 pint jars and 14 quart jars in one shot! You will get a peek at that bad boy in my future recipes. With that cooker, you have the ability to can meats! This is good news for my Italian household. Consider my homemade pasta sauce canned!
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For this batch of jam, I mentioned before that I used my boiler pot. I adjusted the recipe I used for 6 lbs.
What you will need:
- 6 lbs. of fresh strawberries
- 14 cups of sugar
- 8 tablespoons of lemon juice (3 fresh lemons will do it)
- 3.5 oz. of pectin (powdered)
- Mixing bowl
- Potato masher
- (7) quart jars with lids and bands
Optional:
- Digital scale to measure pectin
- Hand juicer if you choose to use fresh lemons
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Fill your boiler pot half way getting it going on the burner. Make sure you are using the grate inside to keep jars from touching bottom of the pot.
2. Place a second on the stove in preparation to cook strawberries. Make sure it is on the larger side.
3. The less fancy way of saying the next step is “remove the nasty tops of strawberries, rinse them off and start smashing them to pieces in mixing bowl with hulk hand power.”
4. Using a measuring cup – measure 1 cup at a time of crushed strawberries into the pot on the stove counting them as go. Depending on how many of your strawberries you could use or the bad ones you didn’t… measure out 7 cups of crushed berries into pot with sugar and lemon.
5. Stir the mixture on high heat continuously until it has a high rolling boil.
6. Add in the pectin a little at a time, stiring continuously. Once all pectin is added, you will continue to stir for one minute.
7. Remove from heat and let it sit for one minute while you start prepping your jars.
8. Take your spoon and scrape off as much foam as you can from the top of melted jam mixture.
9. Start filling your jars, making sure not to get any on the rim of jars. Remove bubbles.
10. Place lids on jars and tighten the bands as tight as you can. (If you are going to use within 2 weeks…you can stop here and place them in the fridge after they cool for a few hours)
11. Place jars in your boiler pot and let the process for 10 minutes.
12. Remove from pot and let cool for 12 hours. (The shelf life is about a year…if done right, they last much longer) Check lids after a bit and make sure they have properly sealed. You should not be able to “click” the top.
Silent Echo 