Home made strawberry jam (without pectin)

I’m not much of a jam lover. But my daughter loves jam, and she would eat almost every thing with jam, be it bread, rotis, dosas, idli. I guess if I give her an option then she would ask me jam even for rice… 😀 😛 Not just my daughter but hubby, son every one at home loves jam. Making jam at home is some thing I have done before a few times, the very first time I had a disaster I over cooked the fruit and the jam turned too hard(which I kind of fixed it later) and the second time I tried it turned out perfect and my daughter loved it! The texture and the taste was perfect. This is my third try and I’m sure to keep trying making fruit jams pretty soon 🙂

Today I’m posting a made from scratch fruit jam made from real ingredients. A divine and simple strawberry jam recipe, it’s so simple and has no added preservatives that you’ll find it silly to buy from a store, and it needs only 3 ingredients! Trust me on this! Go ahead and try it and you will agree with me.

Here’s home made strawberry jam recipe

Ingredients:-

Fresh strawberries – 1 cup/1 pkt
Sugar – 1 cup(adjust as per the sweetness of the fruit and your requirement)
Lime juice – from ½ lime
Method of preparation:-

1. Wash and dry the strawberries commpletely. Pat dry them 2-3 times and then dry under fan for 15 mins to ensure theya re completely dry. Hull strawberries and chop them as small pieces as possible. Place a plate in a freezer just before you start cooking the fruit.

2. In a wide pan, cook chopped strawberries and sugar on medium to low flame and keep stirring constantly ans mashing the ingredients with the back of the spoon.

3. When Sugar begin to boil, add lime juice and mix. The mix will start to thicken up and jam will begin to set and the color will turn dark red. At this stage take the plate from freezer add few drops of the jam on the plate. If the drop remains un disturbed even after shaking, the jam has reached it’s correct consistency. remove from flame immediately. Do not over cook the fruit as it will turn the jam hard, remember the jam will turn a bit hard once it cools.

4. Keep a sterilized clean and dry bottle ready. After I wash the bottle I placed it in boiling water for 15 mins, removed it from water and cleaned it dry with clean cloth. Make sure the bottle cleaned well with no water drops in it.

5. Ladle the jam into sterilized jars and cover tightly. I had enough jam to fill up about 150 gms bottle.

6. Store in a cool dry place. Always use clean dry spoon to scoop out the jam. Your homemade strawberry jam is ready to serve. Serve it on bread, buns, …Enjoy!

My Notes:-

1. 1 cup strawberries to 1 cup sugar is the ratio i have used, if you like your jam less sweet you can add less sugar.

2. Always use dry clean spoon while scooping out the jam. And close the lid tight after use.

3. Please do not over cook the fruit, if you over cook it the jam once it cools will turn hard and you wont be able to use it. Remove from heat once it starts to thicken and check if it is set using the test on freezed plate. If not set place it back on low flame and cook for another 2 mins and test again.

4. If by mistake the jam turns hard, heat 1 tbspn of water and mix in the hardened jam and cook on low flame until it starts to boil. Once it begins to boil, turn off the stove. Amount of water that you would need here might depend on the jam consistency and it’s quantity, so please check on that.