Truly Yummy Jam

Yesterday I looked in the fridge and saw a pint and a half of ‘beyond their prime’ strawberries, and started thinking about the jam I made last year.  I decided to make a batch, and then I started thinking about the strawberries in the freezer.  Every time I buy new strawberries, I clean and trim the last of the old ones, and freeze them in a bag.  I assume we’ll use them for smoothies, but I guess we haven’t had smoothies in awhile, because there were a lot of strawberries in there, and a few bananas as well.  So I decided to use my frozen strawberries, in addition to my fresh ones.  Then, looking at the comments on my old post,  I saw that my friend Liz adds blueberries and a diced Granny Smith apple to the mix, and I thought, hey, I have blueberries and a Granny Smith apple!   Yay!  So I added them as well.  While it was bubbling on the stove, I did a quick Google search, and found that Ina Garten, who I adore and I happen to know Liz adores as well, has a recipe with blueberries and half of a Granny Smith apple, but no lemon juice.  But it was too late.  I had already used lemon in my recipe.  Oh, what the hell.  I like to live life on the wild side.  So I continued with the original recipe, which calls for different heat and timing than the Ina Garten one.  The result?  Gah!  Amazingly yummy jam.

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled (about 4 cups)
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
• 4 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions

In a wide bowl, crush strawberries and blueberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. Add apple. 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 head space, and seal. Process in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don’t bother with processing, and just refrigerate.

I had 6 cups of strawberries, so I used 6 cups of sugar.  I didn’t really measure the blueberries, I just threw a bunch in.  I don’t know that you actually taste the blueberries or the apple.  They just make the strawberry flavor a bit more intense, kind of like adding instant coffee to brownies.  My reward? Sunday breakfast of pancakes with jam.  SO GOOD.  Amazingly good. I’d eat some more right now, except I’m full.