Saturday, June 15, 2024

image

Yes, so Quebec Strawberries are in. I went to my local grocery story last week and found that they were selling 750ml baskets for 5.99$. This is double the price I paid the last time I made jam with these strawberries. Fortunately, this weekend I found they had lowered the price to 2.25$ per 750ml basket.

So the recipe calls for white sugar, brown sugar, lemon juice, and, well; the strawberries (mashed).
I have this food chopper, so after cleaning and removing the green from the strawberries, I would put 4-7 of them inside the food chopper, bang down on the handle witch lowers the blades and rotates the blades on the way up, doing this 12 times. Once mashed like this I put it in the measuring cup to the left.

Putting the sugars, lemon juice and mashed strawberries into this pot I needed to cook it at low heat until the sugars got absorbed, and then raise it to high temperature to have it boil and reach 105C.

Meanwhile I have washed and put into boiling water some 250ml mason jars. Those jars have boiled for at least five minutes. I take the jar out of the boiling water, empty it of water and then put the boiled jam into it; there is enough jam per recipe to do three jars. Once the lids and screw tops are put on to gentle hand tightness they go back into the boiling water for 10 minutes.
Here you can see the first batch is a little darker than the second batch - this is because as I was preparing the strawberries for the second batch, I lost track of the first one and it may have overcooked. I will know how they taste once I open them up for consumption. They are to cool down for 24 hours, so tomorrow I will test that they have all sealed properly and then put them into storage.

I may do another six jars again tomorrow if I can see that the strawberries are still on sale and available. If I do do it, I will prepare all of the strawberries in advance of the cooking, so that I don't end up with an over cooked batch.

Preserved like this the jam is supposed to be safe for consumption for as long as a year, however, at the rate I eat PB&J sandwiches, they are consumed well before the year is up.

No comments: