I was quite excited to make strawberry jam. Expectations of bright jam with light summery flavours abound. Not quite the reality unfortunately. I’ve tried strawberry a couple of times now and it’s been something of a disappointment each time.

The recipe I used this time was a bit different and so, as ever, I started out hopeful.

The Recipe

Ingredients

• 910g of hulled whole strawberries
• 910g sugar
• Juice from one lemon

Method

• Put fruit and lemon juice in a pan.
• Heat very very gently until boiling.
• Gradually add sugar, dissolving in the mixture.
• Once all added and dissolved, boil gently until setting point is reached.

Outcome

This started out looking quite alarming. A large pan with whole strawberries and a tiny splash of lemon juice in it. How do you “boil” whole strawberries?! Turns out it’s not a problem. Heating very gently the strawberries quickly give off extra liquid and before you know it, you’ve got something looking quite reasonable.

The next bit (boil gently until setting point reached) is a mystery to me. Reading in my recipe book and all over the internet suggests that the setting point relies on a couple of things. One is the correct proportions of acid, sugar and pectin - the recipe should provide those proportions correctly. Then you need to reach the right temperature. Everything suggests this is 104℃ or maybe 105℃ and, as far as I can tell, this is to do with the proportion of sugar to water in the mixture (boiling hard doesn’t necessarily matter - just boil until enough water has evaporated off and the boiling point of the mixture gradually rises).

So, that’s what I did. Armed with my shiny new jam thermometer I boiled gently until hitting 104℃. I noted that the temperature varied in different parts of the pot so I waited until I got a good reading in different positions and after a good stir too.

At this point I did the standard setting test (saucer, fridge et c). I couldn’t get it to hit the setting point.

Eventually I put it in jars anyway and sure enough, it didn’t set. After a couple of days I couldn’t accept the outcome so it all went back in the pot with the juice of another lemon (extra pectin) and I boiled it for another ten minutes or so, until the temperature reached 105℃.

I’m pleased to say that this did set and I now have a nicely set jam.

However, there’s a downside. Over all, I boiled this jam for nearly 40 minutes and that’s way too long. It loses the bright fresh colour and the flavour definitely degrades so I’m left still somewhat unhappy and unsure how to make this jam properly.

Verdict

I think I’m going to give up with strawberry jam. After a few failures one way or another and a resulting jam that’s perhaps just a little too sweet for my tastes anyhow, I’m going to stick to other fruit. Rhubarb is my number one favourite which I’ll continue to experiment with. I’ve also got a gooseberry bush in the garden so next year maybe there will be gooseberry jam.