Homemade Strawberry Jam for Canning

Three mason jars filled with strawberry jam cooling on a towel after being water bath canned.

Homemade Strawberry Jam for Canning

In this recipe guide you'll learn how to make homemade strawberry jam without pectin and then preserve it via water bath canning! Yields 5 pints.

Course canned food, Condiment, pantry item

Cuisine American, canned food, pantry staples

Keyword Canning Strawberry jam, Homemade Strawberry Jam, Strawberry Jam

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Total Time 45

Servings 2 tbsp servings

Calories 98kcal

Cost $15

Equipment

5 pint jars with lids and rings
Canning tool set

Ingredients

3 quarts strawberries I use organic
9 cups white sugar

Instructions

Wash the jars by hand using soap and hot water. Do the same with the rings and lids.
Next wash and slice strawberries. Add them to your large jam pot. Start mashing them one layer at a time until all strawberries are cut and mashed.
I use a sturdy whisk or a potato masher for this step. Remember that any chucks of strawberry you leave will end up in your jam. That's not a bad thing, just be aware!
Place jam pot on the stove and add the sugar. Stir until mixed well. With heat on med-high, stir regularly until sugar is dissolved.
While sugar is dissolving, fill your canning pot a little less than half-way with water and start bringing to a low simmer.
Once sugar is dissolved, turn heat up to high and stir constantly.
After 15-20 minutes the jam will start to thicken and coat the stirring spoon. At this point, remove the jam from the stove.
Place the funnel into the jar and position them where you can easily fill the jars with jam.
Ladle in the hot jam, being careful to leave a 1/4" headspace (the amount of air left in the jar from the top of the jam to the top edge of the jar).
Once all jars are full, use the bubble remover. Place the tool all the way into the jar until it touches the bottom and run it along the entire wall of the jar. This will remove any air bubbles that might cause bacterial growth.
Use a clean dish cloth or paper towel, wet with some boiling water from the lid/rings pot, to clean the top rim of the jar. Be careful not to drip water into the jam!
Add a lid and ring to each jar. Hand-tighten only.
Using the jar lifter, place 5 jars into the canning pot. Make sure that they do not touch. If they touch during the canning process, they could shake too much and break.
Make sure that there is at least 1 1/2" - 2" of water covering the top of the jars. If there isn't, add more hot water.
Turn the heat up to high until a full boil is achieved. Once a full boil starts, set a timer for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, use the jar lifter to remove the jars from the boiling water. Place them on a towel and do not move them for at least 6 hours.
Listen for a popping noise over the next hour. That is the jar fully sealing!
Make sure to check that all jars have sealed. If they haven't you can try to process them again in the water bath, or simply place them in the refrigerator and use them first!

Notes

Sugar: We use white sugar for our strawberry jam and we don't use any pectin. This causes the sugar content to be higher in the finished product, but since I have an allergy to pectin, we can't use it.

If you'd like to reduce the amount of sugar, you can use just 3 cups of sugar, 3/4 cup of water, and 3 tablespoons of powdered pectin.

Using Honey Instead of Sugar: If you'd like to use honey instead, you can use 4 cups of honey for this recipe, along with 4 tablespoons of powdered pectin. Cook the jam for about 20 minutes, instead of 15, and note that the consistency of the jam will be somewhat softer.

Nutrition