can jam 2010 - June - erries - take 2

It seems I was a little confused about the timing for this month's post deadline.  I totally thought we had to get things done last week, and I did.  I made 12 jars of raspberry jam and a rockin' bottle of raspberry vodka.  You can read all about it here.

When I put that jam on the shelf I felt confident there would be raspberry jam to last all year.  Boy was I wrong.  It has been a week and Youngest Daughter has already opened a second jar.  I am going to need to make at least one more batch.

On to the strawberries.  Having that additional week gave the local strawberries a chance to come in. The variety of strawberries grown in Washington is the BEST.  I remember eating California strawberries that were grown on a lot down the street and picked a couple hours before they landed in my kitchen.  They were good, but they do not have a thing on our Washington berries.  SO good!

I picked up a 1/2 flat at the local Co-Op.  No, I am not going to tell you what I paid for them.  "Somewhere between Ouch and Boing."    I wanted to try the no pectin recipe from the current Edible Seattle.  I followed the recipe precisely.  The first day I let the berries and sugar and water and lemons sit, then I warmed them, then they sit some more.  The next morning began like this.

The recipe said to check the gel point after about 15 minutes of boiling.  I did.  Not even.  I added more plates to the freezer.  After about 10 minutes I checked again.  Nope.  10 more minutes, still not close.  I repeated this pattern for over an hour.  In the end I was able to get a wee bit of thickening.  I am going to assume the thickening happened not because of pectin, but because of reduction. 

The recipe told me to expect 12 half-pint jars, I got 8.  I am assuming that is because of reduction as well.

Out of the fridge it is a soft jam.  Tastes great!  I am not going to post the recipe because I do not want to break any copywrite rules and because it did not work.  No reason to send you down that path.

Comments

[kate]

We are eating strawberries out of the garden now - so good.

You used a line from one of my favourite movies - yay!!

Nice looking jam, even if it didn't perform as expected.

[knittingkitty]

I'm so ready for my annual strawberry picking trip. I'm still on the hunt for a cooked strawberry jam recipe that doesn't taste overly "cooked".

[Rae]

You are so the Jam making Queen at some point I am going to have to try making some.

[Julie]

I'm still a jam newbie. I bought equipment and the ball anniversary canning book last year but have yet to really get into it. Sadly we didn't get a good strawberry picking weekend this year so none of that for me. Blueberries are just starting here so I may give that a shot. Your jars looks lovely, bet they are scrumptious!

[Audrey]

You have inspired me to get my strawberry jam done this weekend.