Kitchen Garden Forum

Not a cooking tip but a query: which are the best strawberries to use for jam , only just ripe or overripe? I know one lot contains more pectin than the others but I can't remember which. Help, please!

Hi Monika

I believe it is best to use strawberries at their peak of perfection, so would go with just ripe. Not to say that you could not make jam with overripe fruit, but that it would not be quite so good (and I think the pectin levels reduce as fruit ripens, but you can always add lemon juice).

Lucky you to have the problem - I have picked one so far!

I always chop up two or three gooseberries very finely and cook them with the strawberries. You can't taste them and they ensure a good set. If you put more in it sharpens the flavour up a bit if you don't like it too sweet.

I have only found one ripe one so far, so no jam yet.

At least I haven't had to put fleece over the flowers to keep the frost off this year.

Strawberry jam can be tricky stuff to get to a good set. I do something similar to PP's method. I part cook the goosegogs though and seive out the pips. It is tricky getting the quantities right as too many and your jam will take on a greenish tinge and with too few you won't get the set you want.
As for the strawbs I would say choose smaller just ripe ones.
If you want the strawbs to retain their shape in the jam Delia's idea of leaving the fruit covered with the sugar overnight works well. Adding lemon juice helps - suggest juice of 2 lemons per 3 kg fruit.
Don't overboil because the jam will quickly turn brown.
John

Many thanks for all your tips - I make strawberry jam every year and it really is hit and miss for me, sometimes it sets and sometimes it doesn't, in spite of lemon juice, using jam sugar and leaving the strawberries in sugar over night. But I have never added gooseberries, so this year I shall use small, just ripe berries and add some gooseberries.

By the way, the strawberries will be bought not home grown, I am afraid. We are not in a fruit growing area!

Another tip I forgot to mention is redcurrant pulp. This works well, enhances the red colour of the jam and doesn't have a strong taste like goosegogs. I always pulp quite few rc each year seive and freeze till the following year as in the great scheme of things strawbs come before rc so you can't use fresh pulp.
John

That, too, sounds a great tip, John. I particularly like this addition of natural red! If I remember, I shall buy some red currants this year to freeze and use them next year for the strawberry jam.

Good idea about the red currants - I was wondering how you got them to ripen with the strawberries until you said they were frozen from last year.

My mum's a fiendish jammer and uses plums to get a good set: their pectin level is off the scale. It's the manky fruits that get used for jam, ones that you won't really fancy for pudding, usually over-ripe for extra sweetness.

I would use under ripe strawberries and I soften the gooseberries first in a very little water before adding the strawberries. Weigh both together first for the right amount of sugar. I still work in old money pound of sugar to a pound of fruit and so far never had any problems. If the berries don't all ripen at the same time freeze them. They might just need a little longer boiling that's all as freezing destroys some of the pectin. Lemon juice can be added to combat this but shouldn't be necessary with the gooseberries.

Beryl.