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The easiest homemade strawberry jam is made with frozen strawberries, just enough sugar and a touch of lemon and candied orange peel.

I love making seasonal jams, but sometimes it’s hard finding good fruit. That’s where frozen berries really help you out. You can buy them any time of year and there’s no prep work when you use them.

My family loves the triple berry blend from Costco for their oatmeal and smoothies. Oddly enough, nobody loves the strawberries. I think it’s because they’re usually much larger than the blackberries and the blueberries and don’t blend/heat up in the time they’re willing to spend on breakfast.

So what do you do with a glut of really nice organic frozen strawberries that nobody seems to want? You make strawberry jam.

Thankfully making jam is as easy as boiling water. With just a little bit of attention while you’re probably doing something else in the kitchen, you can turn out a small batch of this vivid red jam.

Your morning toast literally needs this jam. One batch, and you’ll never want to buy jam again.

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Easiest homemade strawberry jam

sugar, strawberries, candied orange and lemon half

Ingredients for the best strawberry jam

Frozen strawberries: you can use fresh too (wash and cut off the tops), but frozen are easy since you just throw them in the pot with no extra washing or cutting.
Sugar: just enough. I like my jam to taste like the fruit, not sugar. There’s just enough to make the jam taste bright but not so much its cloying.
Lemon juice: this balances the flavor in the fruit and lowers the pH in the jam. The lower pH helps the pectin in the jam to chain together into that lovely gel set and also inhibits the growth of bacteria.
Candied orange peel: you can skip this, but it boosts the strawberry flavor in a similar way that coffee boosts the flavor of chocolate. Also, even though we’re just adding a little bit, the peel will add to the pectin.

pouring homemade strawberry jam into jar

Wait, there’s no pectin in this recipe…do I need pectin in strawberry jam?

Pectin is a complex sugar found in the cell walls of fruits. Some fruits like apples, pears, and citrus fruits are very high in pectin. Others like grapes and berries are rather low in pectin.

Pectin is what’s needed for jam to come together into that thick spreadable jam-like consistency.

While you can buy commercial pectin (Sure Jell, Pomona’s Pectin etc), I have moved away from adding pectin in all my homemade jams.

Why pectin is literally not my jam

That’s because I really don’t like the taste. It’s hard to describe, but to me it tastes like there’s a barrier between the flavor of the jam. I taste this kind of coating before I taste the fruit. It’s a weird thing, and I do not appreciate it.

I also think it’s sometimes used as a shortcut to making jam. I get it…I’ve processed 50+ pounds of fruit at a time into jam. It’s a hot sweaty mess to sit there stirring simmering pots. But my friends, you will do better if you learn what good jam looks like rather than trying to shortcut things (see #2 below).

I’m sure there’s canning people out there who will complain and tell me I’m wrong here. That’s okay. I know what I like, and I’m comfortable doing things this way. If you want to make jam differently, go for it.

How to break up with pectin and start making better jam at home

Over years of canning hundreds of pounds of grape jam at our old house, I’ve learned 3 things that allow you to skip adding commercial powdered pectin to your jam.

When making jam with low pectin fruits, add a high pectin fruit: in this strawberry jam, we’ve got lemon AND orange peel. Check. Adding an apple would also work beautifully.
Cook down your jam: Jam is really just another sauce. You can keep reducing it down and eventually it will thicken. Use the plate in the freezer test to check the consistency and pay attention to how the jam falls off your spoon as you stir. Good thick jam will start to sit on the spoon as opposed to falling off it.
Set is personal: How thick your jam is is referred to as the “set” of a jam. Literally, this refers to how jam sits on a spoon. Experiment. You may find that there is sometimes when you want a looser more fluid jam. Just cook it a little less. Sometimes looser jam is nice to spread on bread!

Equipment for making strawberry jam

1 quart pot: if you double the recipe, use a larger pot. If you were to make a large batch, use an enameled Dutch oven.
Wooden spoon: for stirring/mashing.
Potato masher or immersion blender: choose your own adventure here. A potato masher will give you a chunky preserve like texture, while an immersion blender will give you a smooth spreadable jam.
8 oz Sterilized canning jar, lid, and ring: This jam doesn’t usually last in my house, so I’m comfortable using these fresh from the dishwasher. For a larger batch or if you’re water batch processing, boil everything. This video from Ball will get you started.

Easiest Homemade Strawberry Jam

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 47 minutes
Yield: 6 ounces

Print Recipe

Description

With just 4 ingredients and no pectin, you can make this jam anytime you want a bright fresh berry taste. Sweetened just enough and with a little hint of orange, you’ll want to use this fresh strawberry jam for everything.

Ingredients

Scale

1 pound frozen strawberries (see note) (454 g)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tablespoon chopped candied orange peel (optional)

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Instructions

Pour the berries into a 1 quart pot along with the sugar and chopped candied orange and turn the heat on to medium.
Cook the berries for about 5 minutes until the juices start running.
Mash the berries a little to help defrost a bit more.
When the berries have defrosted and are soft, either mash them into a chunky texture with a potato masher or whizz them into a smoother texture with an immersion blender.
Once you’ve done this, the jam may foam up. Cover the pot, leaving the lid partially off. This will help the jam from not splattering all over your kitchen.
Set a small plate in the freezer while the jam is cooking.
Lower the heat to medium low, then continue to cook the berries for another 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
As the jam cooks, it will be getting thicker. Be sure to stir more frequently towards the end of cooking so that the jam doesn’t scorch.
Add the lemon juice after the 30 minutes and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
To test the doneness of the jam, place a small spoonful on the cold plate from step 6. Tilt the plate in your hands. The jam should sit on the plate without running.
Pour the hot jam into a clean jar with a sterilized lid.
If you want to can the jam properly, following the processing advice in a standard canning book such as any of the Ball Canning Books.
Jam will keep in the fridge without a water bath for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 6 months. If you follow a water bath canning process, the jam will keep up to 1 year in the pantry.

Notes

Can you use fresh strawberries? You can make this with fresh strawberries as well (just wash and cut the tops off). If you have bruised berries that are starting to get a little soft, but still not moldy, this is the perfect recipe for them.

Do you need the candied orange?: You can skip the candied orange peel, but it adds a backbone of flavor that really makes the strawberry sing. You know how coffee makes chocolate taste more chocolatey? Well, candied orange peel makes strawberries taste more strawberry-ey.

Prep Time: 2 minutes
Additional Time: 0 hours
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Category: Baking building blocks
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 tablespoon
Calories: 48
Sugar: 11
Sodium: 1
Fat: .14
Saturated Fat: .01
Carbohydrates: 12
Fiber: .78
Protein: .26
Cholesterol: 0

What can you do with homemade strawberry jam?

Forgive me if I sound a little like Sam in Green Eggs and Ham, but homemade jam is almost as versatile as Dr. Seuss’ greatest culinary treasure.

Eat it with a spoon.
Spread on toast, English muffins, pancakes, muffins, grilled cheese, ham sandwiches. Basically if there’s a bread-like substance, give it a go.
Make strawberry mini cakes.
Bake mini strawberry tarts, but put a layer of jam between the strawberries and the pasty cream.
Make strawberry crumb cake, but put a layer of jam in between the layers instead of or in addition to the marzipan cream.
Bake a raspberry sour cream coffee cake, putting a layer of strawberry jam between the layers of batter.
Make strawberry jam rolls: I made this recipe of jam specifically for these rolls. They’re what you make when you want a cinnamon roll that’s not cinnamon.