STRAWBERRY JAM (Cooked)

Is it me or have there been a lot of strawberries on sale lately? It's not even strawberry season yet - nowhere near it! As a matter of fact, it was pretty scarce here for awhile in stores then all of a sudden - bang! They're everywhere! And I just keep buying them up! Now I have all these strawberries piled up in containers in my fridge. What is one to do with them all? I can only eat so many and I already have frozen ones for smoothies. Oh, I know! I'll make some strawberry jam!

I've made homemade jam before, but only the freezer kind - and that was centuries ago.
I searched quickly online for a strawberry jam recipe and found this one by BBC Good Food.

The recipe had some good tips and it called for a bit of butter - something I've never heard of being used in jam before, so I decided to give it a try. The butter helps to get rid of any 'scum' left after the boiling and skimming process.

Recipe

Strawberry Jam

(Original Recipe(s): Strawberry Jam)

Ingredients:

• 1 kg (2 lbs.) of hulled STRAWBERRIES
• 750 g (3-1/2 cups) jam SUGAR*
• Juice 1 LEMON (1/4 cup LEMON JUICE)
• A knob (1 tsp.) of BUTTER (optional)

Instructions:

1. Wipe the strawberries with a piece of damp kitchen paper towel - instead of washing them. We don't want the strawberries sucking up too much water because soggy strawberries mean the jam won’t set easily.
2. Place strawberries in a bowl and gently roll them around in the sugar. Leave uncovered at room temperature for 12 hrs or overnight. This process helps the sugar to dissolve, ensures the fruit doesn’t disintegrate too much and helps to keep its vibrant colour.
3. Cook gently on low heat. If any sugar remains on the sides of the pan, dip a pastry brush in hot water and brush the sugar away.
4. When you can no longer feel any grains of sugar remaining, turn up the heat to start bubbling the jam and bringing it to the boil. (The sugar must be completely dissolved before increasing the heat, otherwise it will be difficult for the jam to set, and it may contain crystallized lumps of sugar.)
5. Boil hard for 5-10 mins until the jam has reached 220 degrees F (105 degrees C), then turn off the heat. If you don’t have a thermometer, test a bit of jam on a cold saucer that's been in the freezer for 10 mins. Leave for 30 secs, then push with your finger; if the jam wrinkles or doesn’t flood into the gap, it is ready. If not, turn the heat back on and boil for 2 mins more, then turn off the heat and do the test again. Repeat until ready.
6. At the end only, use a spoon to skim any scum that has risen to the surface and discard this. Constantly skimming during the boiling stage, will increase wastage.
7. Add a knob of butter, if you like, to the finished jam, and stir in to melt. This will help to dissolve any remaining scum that you haven’t managed to spoon off the top. Leave the jam to settle for 15 mins – this will ensure that the fruit stays suspended in the mixture and doesn’t all float to the top of the jam jar. Meanwhile, sterilize your jars.
8. Ladle into the warm sterilized jars, filling to just below the rim and seal. (Some recipes call for turning the jam-filled jars upside down for 10 mins to seal properly.)
9. Store jars away in a cool, dry and dark place.  Refrigerate after opening.

* I used regular sugar and four cups of it. Jam sugar is sugar with Pectin added to it. It has bigger crystals than granulated sugar.  This makes the jam clearer and reduces clouds.

• You can reuse the foam! Pop foam into the microwave for 30-60 secs. You want it to boil up again - not boil over so keep an eye on it. Let it cool. It will look, act, and taste like regular jam. Keep separate in the fridge and use fresh!
• Try not to use over-ripe berries. Use slightly under-ripe berries, as their pectin levels will be higher. (Pectin helps the jam to set.)
• Don't double the recipe. I know this is very tempting to do, especially when you have tons of strawberries on hand. Instead of doubling or tripling the recipe to make one giant batch of jam, make two single batches side by side. Increasing the recipe portions will slow things down.
• Don't reduce the amount of sugar. Sugar in jam isn't just for sweetening. The sugar binds to the water in the fruit, which would otherwise prevent the jam from thickening.