heavenly strawberry jam

My dad makes the best strawberry jam – ever! Imagine a bread roll fresh from the oven, a bit of butter and fresh strawberry jam. The sun is rising with every bite! At least for me. You see, I took this glass of jam with me to post the recipe, but it did not even last until I was able to take this photograph.

There are only a few things that need to be considered when making jam: take care that all your utensils are clean, especially the glasses that will hold the finished produce! Thus: Clean your glasses by placing them in boiling water for a few minutes. There are machines that do it for you, but it is as easy as this. Once you are done with the jam you will need use a short-stem funnel or some creative pouring abilities to pour the jam into the glass.

There are several types of preserving or jam sugar – and there are even ones designed for specific fruits. For this specific jam my dad uses strawberry-preserve sugar, like this one, which is balanced in its contents of sugar, pectin and citric acid specifically to strawberries.

So here we go. Let’s imagine you want to preserve 1kg of fresh and ripe strawberries, which would translate into appr. 8 0.25 l / 0.85 oz glasses like the one pictured above.

Yield: ~8 0.25 l / 0.85 oz glasses
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 3-4 hours

Ingredients:

• 1kg strawberries, cleaned and cut into quarters (or cut to any size you like)
• 500g strawberry preserve sugar

Directions:

Boil your glasses a few minutes. Place the strawberries into the pot which you will use to cook them in. Make sure the pot is only filled about 3/4, because the mixture will boil and bubble. Add the sugar and mix with strawberries until evenly coated. Let rest for about 3-4 hours, so the sugar can get soaked into by the strawberries. I blieve this resting time is the secret ingredient for this jam to be so heavenly. After resting time is over, place pot on the stove and set stove to highest temperature. When the mixture is hot enough so that it starts boiling let it boil for about 3-4 minutes or until the berry-mixture starts to thicken. Use a teaspoon to take a little amount of jam (make sure no strawberry chunk slipped onto the teaspoon) and drop this on a cold surface. It should look like ready jam and be thick. In German we call this  making a Gelierprobe. If the Glierpoble has been successful you will now fill each glass with the hot jam. Be careful not to burn yourself. Do like this: fill one glass then immediately screw the lid on top and place the glass upside down on a kitchen towel which you have laid out. Like this a vacuum forms and the glasses are securely closed and preserved. There are other methods, such as pouring some strong alcohol on top, lighting it and then closing the lid. Wait until the jam has cooled and then let the sun shine by enjoying it with a fresh wheat bun, and a bit of salted butter. Oh, or with pancakes, or with real dark German bread. Anything goes, the sun will shine! Thanks dad!

Source: dad

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