Homemade Strawberry Jam: Grandma C's Famous Recipe

Five quarts (8 bulk cups) of cleaned & stemmed fresh strawberries

My maternal grandmother used to make this strawberry jam EVERY June. We'd go to a local strawberry pick-your-own family farm and go home with six or seven trays. We'd spend an entire Saturday cleaning them, eating them and eventually making Grandma's Famous Jam.

So I found quarts of strawberries on sale yesterday and I scooped up 8-quarts. Five were for this recipe and the other three are for snacking.

Ingredients

• 8-cups fresh strawberries (pureed down to 5 cups)
• 6-cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter
• One packet Sure-Jell- original

Grandma C used the butter to help prevent the berries from sticking to the pot while cooking

Instructions

• Sterilize ALL utensils, jars and equipment being used.
• Clean and stem all strawberries
• Puree strawberries
• In pot, combine pureed berries, butter and Sure-Jell packet. Bring to a rolling boil- takes about 5-7 minutes over medium/high heat. Stir occasionally.
• Add in ALL sugar and bring to rolling boil for ONE minute- set timer
• Ladle hot berry jam/jelly into prepared/hot jelly (or whichever size you choose) jars
• MAKE sure to wipe off the jar's lid area- YOU NEED this free of food, moisture and completely clean
• Put on seals and lids (only tighten enough with your hand/fingers)
• Place in hot water canning pot and process for ten minutes- MAKE sure to have 1-2 inches of water OVER jars. You want the top covered completely.
• After 10 minutes remove jars with jar lifter and place to cool. Make sure lids have PINGED If not, refrigerate immediately and use first.

ALL my utensils excluding the two pots used to cook the jam and the water bath canning pot

I ended up with seven half-pint jars and eight jelly jar size containers of jam today from those five quarts of berries. One half-pint (not pictured) is already in the refrigerator chilling for breakfast tomorrow. That is... if I can wait that long. EVERY jar PINGED SO I AM ECSTATIC!