Strawberry Jam Recipe

This Strawberry Jam Recipe is simple and it works!

And once you realise how wonderfully delicious your own homemade jam is, you will never buy strawberry jam from the store again.

Trust me! Forget the store bought stuff. Grab a punnet of strawberries and follow the steps below.

Why you’ll love this Strawberry Jam Recipe

I must admit I was always a little afraid of jam making – with all the talk of sterilisation, water baths, pectin and setting.

And it’s hard to get the balance right. Jam seems to go from runny to toffee in an instant in my kitchen.

But after testing and tweaking, and stirring and sweating, I’ve come up with this strawberry jam recipe that anyone can make.

And I promise I won’t mention pectin or water baths!

This is a super simple strawberry jam recipe that is the product of my experimentation with Nana Ling’s Mandarin Jam Recipe and a few other jam recipes I’ve tested over the years.

Ingredients for Strawberry Jam

You’ll need these ingredients:

• 250 grams strawberries (hulled and roughly chopped)
• 1/4 lemon
• 1 cup caster or white sugar
• 1/2 cup water.

When choosing your strawberries look for fresh, ripe fruit for a flavour-packed jam. Score bonus points if you scoop them up when they’re on special. 

How to make strawberry jam

Before you get started, you’ll need to sterilise a medium sized jar. The recipe makes about 250ml of jam, so multiply the quantities by the number of jars you’d like to make – or the amount of strawberries you have available.

When sterilising jars, you can keep it simple by sterilising a store-bought food jar on an intensive wash in the dishwasher. No need to follow any other elaborate jarring ritual.

Okay, so there are basically 4 steps involved in the jam-making process:

1. Simmer strawberries and water

Place the strawberries (hulled and roughly chopped) into a medium saucepan.

Add peeled, seeded and chopped lemon.

Add the water and bring to a simmer over med-high heat.

Simmer rapidly for 5 minutes.

The mixture will become quite frothy as the strawberries start to break down.

2. Heat the sugar

Meanwhile, heat the sugar in the microwave for 2 x 30 seconds – stirring between 30 second bursts – just before you add it to the saucepan.

Warming the sugar first means it will dissolve quickly into the fruit mixture without lowering the temperature. 

3. Add the sugar and continue to simmer

Adjust the temperature down to low and add the warmed sugar.

Stir to dissolve the sugar and then increase heat again to bring to a simmer.

Allow to simmer rapidly for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

You may have to turn down heat as mixture thickens to maintain this steady but rapid simmer.

4. Seal in jam jar

Take jam off the heat once mixture has thickened and starts to “stick” a little to bottom of saucepan as you stir the jam.

It should look like this if you take the saucepan off the heat and swirl the mixture:

Keep stirring frequently towards the end of the cooking time and be careful not to burn the jam.

Turn the heat down if it starts to simmer too rapidly.

Pour into the jar and seal with a lid.

Storing your jam

This strawberry jam recipe without pectin is so simple that you don’t have to make huge batches at a time. I simple make up a batch and pop it straight into the fridge ready to eat. 

However, if you have a large amount of strawberries you’re wanting to preserve, you can do your own research on water baths and sealing jars – there’s a tonne of info out there – to extend the shelf life of your jam.

One last thing to do: enjoy!

You’ve done it.

Enjoy the simple pleasure that is homemade strawberry jam.

(And keep scrolling for ingredient quantities and more detailed instructions or check out my entire collection of jams, preserves and condiments.)