Ah, strawberry season. The best time of the year! Time for strawberry shortcakes, strawberries in my Greek yogurt and homemade old fashioned strawberry jam. Last time I was thumbing through my Great Grandmother’s old recipe box I noticed her hand-written strawberry jam recipe and just knew I needed to give it a try. And so I did. And now I will never go back to any other recipe…this one is the “berry” best out there!
This old fashioned strawberry jam recipe was amazing. It was so easy to make, and had a perfect texture. Plus it doesn’t use Pectin!! Did you know you don’t need to use pectin in homemade jam making? Neither did I until now. Pectin isn’t necessarily bad for you but I would way rather make it the old fashioned way and let the natural pectin in the fruit do the work. Plus I prefer a softer jam to a more gelatinous one.
Have you noticed that all jam recipes always call for an insane amount of sugar? I’ll admit that is shocks me every time. This recipe does have all that sugar too, but the ending result is worth every sugary spoonful. I love the 3 simple ingredients – fresh strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Doesn’t get much simpler that that.
This recipe is my new favorite strawberry jam recipe. Why? Because I am a huge fan of freezer jam, and this tastes just about the same, like fresh strawberries. It has the same consistency of freezer jam but I don’t have to store it in my freezer. I need all the freezer space I can get for my freezer meals. This strawberry jam is canned using the hot water bath canning method, so I can store it in my pantry.
Old Fashioned Strawberry Jam Without Pectin
First you will want to wash your jars and lids in some hot soapy water. Place the center lids of your jars in a small saucepan and cover with water, bringing it to a simmer without boiling.
Next wash and remove stems from strawberries and puree them or mash the up depending on the consistency of jam you like. I went ahead and pureed mine. Stir in sugar and let sit for 2 hours.
Add strawberry mixture to a large pot and bring to a slow boil over medium heat, stirring often. Turn heat up to medium high and let strawberries boil rapidly for 5 more minutes.
Update: Some of you have mentioned in the comments about the jam being runny. Gene, a happymoneysaver reader emailed me and said that if you take the boil to 220 degrees F using a candy thermometer it comes out perfectly set. Haven’t tried this myself…but wanted to let you know this may be a great thing to try.
Add in lemon juice and stir. Boil for 5 more minutes and remove from heat.
Pour the delicious strawberry jam into the clean jars, making sure to wipe the rim with a wet washcloth to remove any jam that may prevent the lid from sealing. Or just grab a spoon and start digging in…it is so very tempting. 🙂
Remove center lids from simmering water and add to the tops of the jars then place on lid rings and set aside. At this point you can add jars to a large water bath canner and boil for 10 minutes.
For small batch canning like salsa, syrups and jams, etc. I prefer to use my Ball® Home Canning Discovery Kit. This little contraption is so nice because I can use a large pot instead of pulling out my gigantic canner. The little basket that it comes with it can only do 3 jars at a time but for small batches it’s perfect. It is especially perfect for the beginner canner. I have been very happy with it.
Just place jars in the basket, lower basket into a pot of boiling water, put the lid on the pot and boil for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes is up, using the handle of the Ball® Home Canning Discovery Kit, pull basket out of water, place jars on a counter away from small hands, and let cool.
If jars seal, you will hear a loud popping sound. It’s pretty much my favorite part about canning. I don’t know why. All you canners out there, you understand don’t you? If a jar does not seal, put it in your fridge and eat it up in the next couple weeks. This recipe made about 10 half pint jars for me.
Thank you Great Grandma Munn for this wonderful recipe. I will be making this one for many years to come.
Below is the printable version of this recipe for you!
Old Fashioned Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
- 2 quarts strawberries
- 5 cups sugar heaping
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
Instructions
- Wash strawberries and remove the stems.
- Chop, mash or puree strawberries and stir in the sugar. Let sit for 2 hours.
- Add strawberry mixture to a large pot and cook slow over medium heat until it boils, stirring often. Then turn up the heat to med-high and boil fast for 5 more minutes or until candy thermometer says 220 degrees F.
- Add in lemon juice and stir. Boil 5 minutes longer.
- Pour jam into clean jars and add lids. Place in a hot water bath canner and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from water and let cool to room temperature. Store in a cool dry place for up to 1 year.
Notes
Makes about 10 half pint jars of jam.
I boiled this to 220 F and was delighted with the flavor and consistency (I’d also thrown in a vanilla bean and the scent was gorgeous!) so I went ahead and poured it into the jars. Then I realized I’d forgotten to add the lemon juice. So I dumped it all back into the pot with the juice and boiled for 5 minutes and then canned it again. But the flavor of the lemon has overpowered that of the berries and vanilla. Sigh! I have lots more berries so I’ll try again with a different acidic agent.
Thank you for this great starting point recipe. I love having my grandmothers’ recipe boxes too! They’re very special to me 😊
I have a big bag of frozen strawberries. Do I thaw or leave frozen making this strawberry jam?
Best jam ever! Thank you for sharing x
Made this jelly today and it’s very thin with a very lemon taste will not make this again, only used 4 cups of sugar very sweet . Last recipe I used only called for 1 tab of lemon juice.
This is my go to recipe to make jam every year and am glad that the link still works. Thank you for the great recipe! This is our 3rd year making it.
Someone gave me a tip to add a spoon of butter during the boiling part to prevent the mix foaming high….
i made this recipe last night and it turned out amazing! I pureed the strawberries and used my candy thermometer to measure it to 220 F it came out perfect consistency and the flavor was perfect. Im saving this recipe and using it from now on.
I made this recipe to add to my homemade yogurt, so I skipped the canning process I just let cool down while the yogurt was doing its thing. I made about 1/3 of this batch as I didn’t have enough strawberries for a full batch but was just enough for 1 gln of yogurt. Turned out wonderful. Always looking for creative ideas to flavor my batches as I make yogurt once a week. Although I am sure it would be delish on bread. Thank you for the share
Had a heap of strawberries from the market but no pectin! Googled, found this recipe. Had to substitute citric acid for the lemon juice, but it totally worked – runnier than store bought (as expected), and absolutely delicious, thank you! Skipped the last part about boiling the jars – it’s not going to last long … Eating it on toast right now 🙂
This is my first experiment with canning. I was only able to fill 6 1/2 pint jars with the strawberry jam: however, I only put in half the sugar. Does that account for not being able to fill 10 jar? I’ll let you know how they come out.
Hi! Can I use frozen strawberries for this kind of recipe?
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Hoe should the consistency be after the canning and cooled? I have a thick syrup like for my jams that I canned, but a very think consistency for the one I put in the fridge. Is this the correct consistency or did I not let it boil enough? But it taste great!!
When I was younger my grandma use to use this recipe but it came out thicker. This one turned out like syrup. It tastes good but I was looking for a jam recipe. Now I’ll have to dump it all out and add pecten or sure gel.
Add a note to the bottom of your recipe that it comes out runny like syrup.
I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect! My kids and husband love it! Thanks for the recipe!
So happy you loved it! Thanks!
I made this pectin-free recipe yesterday & I followed the recipe except for the last step because I wanted to make freezer jam …but it’s incredibly thick, too thick to spread. Any tips?
I just made this jam today. Like some of the people who commented before me, I got a lot less out of the recipe than indicated. I used 4 C. of sugar instead of 5 heaping C. It is very very sweet still, so I’m wishing I had put even less. I used meyer lemons for the lemon juice and added some zest to keep the jam light and summery (and to add some additional pectin). I also cooked mine longer than indicated and used a thermometer to get the jam up to 220 degrees to kill as much bacteria as possible. I made two batches back to back and both turned out the same. It seem to have set up nicely and I’m excited to try it. My jam wasn’t as thin as a syrup but not as thick as a jelly…a true jam. Delicious! Thank you!
Glad you liked it. I will have to try substituting Meyer lemons for the lemon juice–YUM!
I made this jam this morning and it turned out perfectly!!
10 half pint jars of pure deliciousness!
Do you think it’s safe to try the same recipe for other fruits?
I haven’t tried other fruits but I think it is definitely worth a try!
Made it tonite with 2 qt s’berries and 4 C sugar. It turned out “runny” as noted (what I expected and am OK with it) but only got 6 1/2 pints (3 full pints). I like it but I’ll go back to freezer (or pectin-added) jam next time. Thanks.
Glad you liked it!
This is the most delicious jam! I made it a couple weeks ago and it was actually really thick, I think it’s because I may have cooked it a little longer than the recipe says, for fear of it being too thin. I just picked another batch of strawberries and I’m going to try again tomorrow, thanks for sharing!
We went to the Strawberry Festival in Portland, TN yesterday and bought oodles of strawberries. I just made this jam (just pulled the jars out of the canner) and am listening to the “pop” of the seals! I filled 7 6-7oz jars with about 1/8 cup left, which tasted DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for this simple and easy recipe!