Strawberry jam

What do you do when quarts of strawberries are $1.17 at HEB?  Make jam, of course!

All that jam...just waiting for some peanut butter and bread, or biscuits, or just a spoon...

here's how I make mine:

I boil up a pot of water, with the lids and rims, then pour the water into the clean jars and set them and the lids aside.  My jars go through the dishwasher, so they just need the boiling water to help them stay hot.

I trim and cut into tiny chunks most of 2 qts. of strawberries, until I have 5 cups.  I measure out  7 cups white sugar and have a box of of pectin handy, too.

I mash and stir the strawberries and pectin in a big pot over medium high heat, adding in a teaspoon of butter to keep the foaming action down while I mash the chunks.

Once it comes to a boil, I dump in the sugar all at once and boil it hard for one minute. 

(sugar not shown here)

A hard boil cannot be stirred down.

Take the jam off the heat and dump the water out of the jars.  Then fill them with hot jam using a ladle. Wipe spilled jam off the tops of the jars and the threads.  Place the lids on and screw on the rims.  Then I turn the jars upside down for about 5 minutes while I clean up my mess.

My kitchen smells so good!

 You can see I left just about a quarter inch of room in the jar - you want them pretty full.

Then set them upright and listen for the POP as they cool and seal.    

It's called the Inversion Method and it's easy peasy!

 I estimate this batch was about $3.50 since I already had the jars.  I am saving one for my mom and a friend.  The rest will be devoured by my jam-loving peeps...

the taste of Spring in a jar and so easy - try it!

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Cookin' for my Captain
Strawberry Linky