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Summer is not only the warmest time of the year, but also the most delicious. It is in the summer that our gardens and orchards are filled with fresh vegetables, fruits and berries. But summer quickly passes, and with it goes this gastronomic wealth. Therefore, many of us, even in the summer, at the height of the berry and vegetable season, try to close as many cans as possible for the winter. In this article we will talk about how to make a delicacy that is loved by many - strawberry jam.
Subtleties of making strawberry jam
Strawberries or, as they are also called, garden strawberries are a very tasty, but very capricious berry. To make strawberry jam and not be disappointed with the end result, you need to carefully select the berries. Beautiful and incredibly tasty strawberry jam will only be made if the berries meet the following criteria:
- They must be ripe. Unripe berries do not yet have a special berry aroma, so the jam from them will not be tasty. But overripe berries will fall apart during cooking, so they can only be used for jam.
- To make strawberry jam, you should choose berries of the same size. This is due to the fact that different sized berries have different cooking times.
But it’s not enough to just make strawberry jam, you also need to preserve all the benefits of the berries in it. Cooking jam involves heat treatment, during which many vitamins are lost. And here a logical question arises: “So how long should you cook strawberry jam so that it retains its benefits?” It all depends on the specific recipe, but the longer the berries are cooked, the less beneficial vitamins remain in them. Pre-filling the berries with sugar will help to avoid this unnecessary loss of the lion's share of vitamins. The juice extracted from strawberries in a few hours will help speed up the cooking of the jam, and therefore preserve more nutrients.
Before you cook strawberry jam, you need to take care of the container in which it will be closed. To do this, use only glass jars, which must first be washed and sterilized. There are quite a few methods of sterilization and you can use any of them with equal success. But if time is short, then it is best to use a quick method of sterilization. They will tell you more about it in the video:
Now that all the subtleties have been discussed, let's talk about how to make strawberry jam.
Classic strawberry jam recipe
To make strawberry jam according to this recipe, we need a minimum set of ingredients:
- kilogram of berries;
- kilogram of sugar.
Those who prefer strawberry flavor can use strawberries instead of strawberries.
Before making strawberry jam, all the berries must be sorted and cleaned of stems and leaves. After this, they should be rinsed under a weak stream of water and dried a little.
Now the prepared berries need to be covered with sugar and left for a day to release the juice. The more juice the berry gives, the tastier the jam will be. At the end of the specified time, no sugar should be visible at the bottom of the container; it should completely dissolve in the released juice. Now you can start cooking.
To do this, pour the berries along with the juice into an enamel bowl and bring to a boil over medium heat. When the mixture boils, reduce the heat and continue cooking for 5 minutes. After this, turn off the fire, cool the jam and leave to infuse for 24 hours. After this time, the cooking procedure should be repeated. At the same time, the second time you need to remove the resulting foam from the almost finished strawberry delicacy.
The cooked jam must be poured into jars while still hot and closed with lids. After the jars of treats have cooled, they can be stored in a cool place.
Strawberry five-minute
Strawberry jam, the recipe for which we will consider below, is prepared extremely quickly. The answer to the question: “How long to cook jam according to this recipe” is hidden in its name. The entire cooking process will not last longer than 5 minutes, which means that the beneficial substances in such a delicacy will be preserved.
To prepare you will need:
- kilogram of strawberries;
- kilogram of sugar;
- a tablespoon of lemon juice.
An unsightly berry will do just fine. When the delicacy is cooked, it will still not be visible.
The berries, as always, need to be peeled and washed. Now you need to cut them in half.This is done so that in 5 minutes of cooking they can be completely cooked. After this, they need to be covered with sugar and left for several hours to release the juice.
When the juice from the berries is released, you can start preparing the delicacy. Place the stove on low heat and cook the strawberries and sugar for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. During the cooking process, you will see that the berries will begin to release more juice, forming foam. It is recommended to remove it only with a wooden spoon or spatula.
At the end of cooking, add lemon juice and turn off the stove. Now all that remains is to pour the finished treat into pre-sterilized jars and close them with lids. Before the jam cools completely, turn it upside down.
Jam with whole strawberries
As you can see in the photo below, the jam made according to this recipe is distinguished by its not just good, but excellent appearance. The berries seemed to have come out of the garden and lay down to rest in the sweet syrup.
To prepare it you need:
- 3 kilograms of strawberries;
- 2 kilograms of sugar.
The process of making such jam is not much different from other recipes discussed. But due to the fact that we need to preserve the integrity of the berries, we must handle them very carefully during cooking.
The berries must, as always, be peeled, washed and dried, while being careful not to bruise or damage their shape. After this, the berries should be placed in a deep enamel container and covered with sugar. In this form they should stand for 6 hours.
When 6 hours have passed, you can start cooking. Bring the berries and juice to a boil over medium heat, periodically skimming off the foam.
Cooking takes place in 3 stages:
- When the mixture boils, you need to add 400 grams of sugar and reduce the heat. After this, cooking continues for 10 minutes. Then, the jam is removed from the stove and left for 10 hours.
- The second time the jam should also boil, but you need to add 300 grams of sugar to it. The infusion time is the same - 10 hours.
- All the remaining sugar is added to the final cooking, but the almost finished delicacy should boil for no more than 5 minutes.
It should be poured into jars while still hot, and stored after cooling in a dark and cool place.
These simple recipes are suitable even for novice cooks. The main thing is not to exceed the recommended cooking time and believe in your abilities.
