In my house strawberry jam is only eaten in freezer jam form. We don't like cooked strawberry jam. I use the box recipe of pectin.

I do what my mom does. I put frozen strawberries and a little sugar in a saucepan. Cook for about 20 minutes or so. Thicken juices with a little cornstarch/water mixture or you can crush some of the strawberries. If using fresh strawberries, you can add some water or orange juice.

I have not made this yet, but it's in my "to try this season" file! LOL It's frrom RobinKate

Strawberry Jam with Cointreau and Drambuie

6 cups roughly chopped strawberries, not all ripe
Juice from 1 juice orange, peels, pits and pulp reserved
Chop half the peels and pulp finely and reserve, the other half should be roughly chopped and placed in a tea ball or cheesecloth bag with the pits

3 cups white sugar
3 Tablespoons Drambuie
1 Tablespoon Cointreau

Chop the strawberries and add to the pan once you have 2 cups of fruit. Add 1 cup of sugar and stir to combine. As you measure the fruit add it to the pan. Place remaining ingredients in the pan and cook until the setting point is reached. Ladle hot jam in to hot jars to 1/4 inch of the top and screw on lids and bands. Process in a BWB for 10 minutes for unsterilized jars and 5 for sterilized jars.

Note: The pieces of peel are way yummy so next time I may add all of them finely chopped to the jam.

Not a jam or jelly and I can't remember who posted this originally, but it is amazing! And it makes a really good Strawberry Bellini, too! Scrumptious Strawberry Liqueur 3 c fresh strawberries, stemmed & washed 1\-1/2 c sugar 2 c 100 proof vodka 1 c water 1/2 tsp lemon zest 1 tsp orange zest 1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice Crush strawberries and sugar together in bowl. Let stand for about one hour. Transfer to clean 2\-qt container and add vodka, water, lemon zest, orange zest, and lemon juice. Cover and let stand in a cool, dark place for 2 days, shaking frequently. Use a fine\-mesh strainer to strain out solids. Discard. Transfer liqueur to clean container, cover, and let stand for 1 week. Rack or filter into final container. Age for at least 1 month more before serving. Yield: approx. 1 qt. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is one I saved from Alexa. Ithink several people here have made these, I have not....yet! Stuffed Strawberries They are super easy and adapt well to any sort of flavoring you want to include. These are the "basic" model... Hull the strawberries, cut a flat bottom and then cut a notch in the pointy end. Mix together 1 package softened cream cheese, about 1/2 cup of creme freche, about 1/2 cup (more or less) of powdered sugar and a 1/4 tsp of almond extract. Mix until it is a consistency and level of sweetness you like. I usually grate a little dark chocolate over the top, but my friends fiance doesn't like chocolate (heathen! LOL) so I left it off. Some variations I've made are (leave the almond extract out): Grand Marnier and orange zest Chocolate extract and Godiva liquor White chocolate (melt it a little and mix it in) Linda

I made four batches of strawberry jam last year. One was regular jam made with pectin from the recipe in the pectin box. That was OK. The second was strawberry rhubarb from a recipe book I have, and that was excellent but it didn't set up. I use it as a topping for french toast, pancakes and waffles and yogurt though, and it works just fine! The third was a mixed berry jam (I used some raspberries I had growing in the yard) and it used apples as a source of pectin, it is a low sugar recipe. That has been excellent too. This year I'm going to experiment with just the low sugar plain strawberry with apple. Both of those are from the recipe book, "Summer in a Jar" by Andrea Chesman, one of my favorites but out of print. The last recipe was the fancy strawberry preserves recipe from the Ball Blue Book of Canning, which also did not really set up that well, and I used as a sauce/topping like the strawberry rhubarb. It was also excellent and had the best fresh strawberry flavor, but it was not easy to make, it required a two day process!

I'll post some of these when I'm home and near my recipe files if you have any interest.

Strawberries are definately a preserving challenge due to their delicate flavor. I think freezing is the best option, both fresh frozen and freezer jam.

I also make fruit syrup out of strawberries, basically jam that's pourable, and ON PURPOSE! LOL Amanda loves it on pancakes and waffles.

I just use an old fashioned strawberry jam recipe with nothing but strawberries and sugar. It's tricky, though, and easily overcooked, the berries are fragile. I only mess with it because Dad shouldn't have the sugar.

For just plain strawberries, not a mixture, I just use the recipe on the Sure Jell box, because if I use pectin I don't have to cook as long.

This one is good and I've cut the sugar down by a cup or so, and still had it thicken. Not exactly jell, more like a thick fruit spread.

Strawberry Jam
yield: 5 cups

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled
4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

In a wide bowl, crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process any unsealed jars in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don't bother with processing, and just refrigerate.

when I test for jell point, I put a saucer in the freezer when I start the jam. When I think it's close to being thick enough, I dab a bit of jam on the plate and put it back in the freezer for a minute. If I can draw a line through the middle with my finger after that minute, and the jam doesn't run back in to fill that space, it's ready. I've learned to turn off the heat while I wait for the jam to get cold, because you can have taffy pretty quickly instead of jam.

Jam without pectin tends to be a bit "looser", but I like it because it tastes more like berries and less like an inordinate amount of sugar.

Annie

If you have a dehydrator, strawberries are great as either just snacks or in muffins, pancakes, etc. My kids always ate them dried by the fistfulls.

/tricia

I tried it without pectin and it took a long time and never set up - it turned out being strawberry butter, which is delicious. If you don't use pectin, let the strawberries sit out overnight to dehydrate a bit. They release a lot of water. Also don't add the sugar until after you've cooked the bulk of the water down, or else the sugar will burn or taste caramel-y. To add natural pectin you might add some minced apple. I'll try freezer jam next.