Strawberry jam is as American as apple pie with a special benefit other comfort foods lack. A fruit preserve can be enjoyed over an extended period of time. In the process of preserving fruit, its juices concentrate and flavor intensifies for later enjoyment. So, why rush to make it quickly?
Let’s look at preserving from the strawberry’s point of view. Like all fruits, the strawberry desires to be eaten raw, digested and its seeds expelled on the ground to produce the next generation. Modern indoor plumbing and commercial agriculture have messed once again with Nature’s plan to an alarming extent. Instead of foraging for scarlet berries half-hidden under trefoil leaves in the forest, we purchase clamshells of plumb, hybridized, often imported, berries in the supermarkets. Never mind. Berries are presently inexpensive and tasty eaten directly out of their plastic clamshell packaging.
The best way I have found to preserve the flavor in a food designed to be eaten uncooked is to work in small batches and quickly. I said as much thirty-five years ago in the first edition of Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine. That did not rule out the inclusion of more time consuming techniques. In 1983 my point of departure was the first historic reference to eating fruit preserves found in Boccaccio’s 14th century Decameron Tales. It's most ironic that this book from the Renaissance was set a secluded estate inhabited by Florentine aristocrats during the Black Death pandemic.
Today’s pandemic requires an updated solution. The time-honored process of making preserves with whole berries steeped in concentrated juices is less appealing than the fresh, less-sweet flavor of minimally processed fruit. In the ensuing decades, I have also discovered that the nuanced flavors of jams and preserves decreases over three to six months time. It is yet another reason to make small batches of jam.
This recipe makes about one cup of jam. It’s just the right size to pour into a glass jar and store in the refrigerator. It will keep for a month easily, if you haven’t eaten it all by then. You can double the recipe and make enough eight ounce jars to share with neighbors and friends using directions for processing and sealing jars in the current version of my book, Artisanal Preserves.
QUICKEST EVER STRAWBERRY JAM
Ingredients:
1 pound ripe strawberries
1/4 cup + granulated sugar
1 + tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Rinse the berries well. Trim off the green leaf portion, halve each berry and place in the work bowl of a food processor or blender. Use the pulse function to finely dice the berries. You can also chop them by hand into pieces the size of a pea. Transfer the berry pieces to a 2 quart pan. Thoroughly stir in 1/4 cup sugar, cover the pan and let the mixture stand for 20 - 30 minutes.
Bring the berries to a simmer over medium high heat and cook, stirring often for 5 minutes or until there is almost no residual liquid in the bottom of the pan and the berry pieces are still discernible. Add the lemon juice and cook another 30 seconds.
Off the heat, cool down a 1/2 teaspoon of the jam and taste to determine the balance of sweet and sour. Add more lemon juice or sugar as needed and cook another minute or two.
Pour the hot jam into a 12 ounce glass jar, lightly cover with plastic or the jar lid, and let the jam cool on a rack. Screw cap on tightly and refrigerate.
