c's uncle brought us some strawberries that he harvested from his yard. it was too much that we couldn't finish before they all went bad, so i decided to do what i'd been wanting to do: JAM!
since i could only find a jar at home, i decided to do a test batch with a recipe found on a taiwanese blog which would produce about 300g of strawberry jam. another reason of going with this recipe was because the allrecipe would make me end up with 5 cups of jam which i had no jars to contain and the serving calculation only made it more confusing with the nonsense portion of the ingredients.
another thing i found useful for a rookie like me was this article from the new york times that showed you how to prepare the jars and to test the seal.
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| mao mao wasn't so sure if he liked strawberries... |
after gathering all the ingredients i need which included strawberries (duh), sugar (lots of it), and fresh squeezed lemon juice, i started to wash and cut the strawberries then mix them with sugar.
while cutting the strawberries, i thought of this thing that mom told me a couple years ago. the beautifully red and big strawberries you found at supermarkets were usually hollow, and this was because most of them were grown with growth hormone. i still had no idea how scientific was this saying, but for sure home grown and fresh picked strawberries would always be the best to enjoy! and all the strawberries i cut today were firm and filled with a good balance of sweet and sour :) later on i found this good guide on buying strawberries!
after leaving the strawberries in the sugar for almost 2 hours, the bowl was half full with juice and the scent was starting to take over the kitchen.
during the wait time, i started a pot of water to boil and sterilized the jar and lid.
now the strawberries + sugar mixture was ready to be heated! started with low heat and kept stirring to keep the sugar from burning. once the sugar was all dissolved, i turned to high heat and brought it to boil.
this was where i stopped following the recipe but just use my instincts. since my mixture didn't seem to coagulate to the right texture, i switched between high and low heat to control the boil level. once it seemed to reach the texture i want, i poured in the lemon juice and kept it boiling (never stop stirring). then i lower the heat and kept it simmering till it become more like the jam texture that i was familiar with then i turned the heat off and let it sit to cool. it then continued to firm up.
and there! my very first homemade strawberry jam in life :D
i loved the sweet and sour taste of it, and the lemon juice actually cut the sweetness and brought refreshment to the jam!
now i'm craving some scones to go with the jam...hmmm...
