- If you ever wanted to try making homemade jam,
my homemade strawberry jam recipe is for you.
And, if you like this video,
don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe.
Hey, you're watching Preppy Kitchen where I, John Kanell,
teach you how to make a delicious homemade dishes
to share with your family and friends.
This jam will be ready in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
So let's get started.
First off, give two pounds of strawberries a nice wash.
And now we're gonna prep them
by removing the hull carefully,
and then just cutting them into pieces.
It's totally up to you.
Some people have a whole thing
with like big pieces of strawberry in their jam.
I don't mind it at all.
My kids, however, will not touch the pieces.
They think they're
like a trap or something.
So you can let me know in the comments
if you have big pieces, don't mind,
or this is all news to you.
You're gonna continue this process
for all the strawberries.
And, let me tell you, that making jam
is a must do sort of thing in the summer
when you have an abundance of berries.
It's just not the same to buy jam from the store.
If you make your own, you can add anything you want.
You can control the texture, the sweetness,
what additional flavors you like.
Maybe you wanna toss some blackberries in there too,
or maybe a little sprig of lavender.
Even some rose water is nice.
(upbeat music)
Okay.
Oh my gosh.
I just finished hulling all those strawberries.
Now we're just gonna give them a nice, easy chop.
Seems wrong for some reason,
but you don't have to be precious about this.
(upbeat music)
Strawberries are chopped.
Let's add them into our pot.
Oh, this is gonna be so delicious.
To my strawberries,
I'm adding a dash of lemon juice.
Maybe a couple tablespoons.
As well as 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar.
In you go.
All right, this is gonna go over medium heat on the stove.
Let's go.
My mixture is over medium heat right now.
And once it comes to a boil,
you're gonna notice the strawberries are expressing
a lot of their liquid.
It becomes more watery.
This mixture needs to get up to 220 degrees Fahrenheit,
so we're gonna increase this to like medium-high, high.
It depends on your stove.
You don't wanna scorch them.
You're gonna let this boil until that reaches 220.
It's best to use a candy thermometer.
But if you don't have one,
you can just let it be at a full boil for around 15 minutes.
This is actually a little high as far as the temp goes.
This is at a full high right now.
My mixture is at about 220 degrees,
and there's a lot of liquid in here,
but there's a lot of giant chunks of strawberry too.
They haven't broken down all the way.
So I'm not just gonna stir.
I'm gonna mash as well.
This is a potato ricer.
You could use a muddler.
You could use whatever you want.
It's totally your kitchen and your rules.
Just be careful not to get a steam burn,
'cause it's a real thing.
You could turn the extractor on,
unless you're filming a YouTube video
and don't want the background noise.
There we go.
That's much better.
I'm getting these pieces broken down
and it's gonna be a delicious jammy jam.
My mixture's almost at 220
and I want you to see the difference from now
compared to when it first came to a boil.
At first, it was like frothy.
So much water, really liquidy.
Now it looks like boiling jam.
Almost all or like a lot of the water
has boiled off as steam.
It's gone.
It's bye-bye.
All that your left is delicious fruit and sugar.
So this is what jam is.
My whole point is that I don't want you
to like see it coming to a boil and like, oh, it's ready.
It's not ready.
It's gonna be a watery mess.
Really wait for it to change consistency.
And if you're not using a candy thermometer,
you know about 15 minutes.
But you can see the difference too.
This is like very jammy and syrupy compared to before.
Word to the wise.
(upbeat music)
Okay, this is ready to come onto the counter.
One thing first though, this video's not over.
You've gotta sterilize your jars.
You've got a couple options for this.
You can either use your dishwasher
on the sterilization cycle
or you can just plop the jars
and the lids in boiling water for like 15 minutes.
It'll kill everything.
They're gonna be hot though.
So just be careful.
Ooh!
Now we're gonna pour our hot jam
into our hot sterilized jars and seal them right up.
We don't want any bacteria getting in them.
So you know, don't lollygag.
(upbeat music)
Okay.
Pour that in carefully.
Try not to spill.
Oh no!
Dang it.
Plan B.
Spoon that in.
Try not to spill.
(upbeat music)
Pop that lid on and this will keep for quite a while.
You can of course, open it up and enjoy it right away.
Just let it cool down a bit first.
(John laughs)
My jam is cooled.
You can see the consistency is just perfect.
No pectin needed.
If you liked this recipe,
check out my strawberry playlist.
Mm!
That was just delicious.
I love the strawberry flavor coming through
and I love that I made this myself
with ingredients from my own kitchen.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe
and I'll see you in the next video.