Strawberry Jam

This recipe is a simple way of preserving strawberries to enjoy the whole year-round. We cook our strawberries whole leaving the beautiful texture of large pieces of fruit in the finished product. Strawberries do not contain enough natural pectin to give us the texture we want in our jam so we add the flesh and juice of an orange and lemon for their abundance of pectin, sugar and inherent acidity.

INGREDIENTS

1kg strawberries

750g sugar

1 lemon

1 orange

METHOD

1. Begin by rinsing the strawberries well and removing the green leaves and stem from the fruit, taking care to remove as little from the strawberry as possible.

2. Remove the peel from the orange and lemon and reserve for another recipe. Remove the seeds and chop them into small pieces.

3. Add the strawberries, citrus and sugar to a large saucepan capable of holding everything with at least 3 inches between the mixture and the rim of the pan.

4. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.

5. Increase the heat to high and cook the fruit until the cooking liquid reaches 105C on a thermometer. Make sure to regularly stir the contents of the pan as once the syrup thickens, it catches easily against the bottom of the pan. Roughly 20 minutes.

Once the mixture has reaches 105C remove it from the heat and store it in sterilised jars at room temperature indefinitely.

Makes 750ml of Jam