Confiture de Fraises...or Strawberry Jam!

We have found ourselves in one of the best spots in the country for strawberries at exactly the right time of the season! How lucky are we?? Carpentras is a village about 7 km's from our current home in Pernes-les-Fontaines and they are both villages that are well known in Provence (and all of France for that matter!) for having amazing strawberries. 

Everywhere you go there are plump, red, juicy, sweet strawberries being sold by the boxful...yes literally by the box full! They are sold in 3kg boxes and they are sooooo tempting, we just had to buy some from the Carpentras market last Friday. But with 3kg's of strawberries, I thought I'd better make some jam...well, there is another produce market tomorrow and I will need to buy some more fresh from there won't I??

Ingredients:

3kgs fresh strawberries (minus a couple as we had to taste test them on the way home from the market!)
1kg caster sugar
juice from 1 lemon

(This quantity made about 1.5kg's of jam)

Method:
This recipe really could not be simpler..there is no pectin (the setting agent usually used in jams) and you really can't go wrong with it.

1. Chop the strawberries up - remove the hull, chop into quarters

2. Put all of the strawberries into a large pot, add the sugar

3. Squeeze the juice from one lemon into the strawberries and heat it. Use a masher to break down the strawberries every now and again and just cook gently till all of the berries are broken down, glossy and "jammy" - takes about an hour, but you don't need to stir it constantly once the sugar is all melted, just make sure the heat isn't too high and it will basically do it all by itself

4. When the mixture is looking like jam, you can test it to see if it is ready. The trick to this is to put a small plate in the fridge to chill. Put a small spoonful of the jam onto the plate and put it back into the fridge for a minute. Remove from fridge and run your finger through the jam, if the jam holds the line (as pictured below) it is right. If it just runs back into the centre it will need a little longer. Place plate back in the fridge and try this test again in another few minutes. Once this holds your jam is ready!

5. Allow jam to cool whilst you sterilise your jars. This is not difficult and is a must if you want your jam to last - if you are not sure how to do this, I have a link here with instructions with 4 different methods - I simply wash them in hot soapy water, rinse them and then put them in the oven at 160 degrees for about half an hour. 

Make sure you don't put boiling hot jam into cold jars or cold jam into hot jars!

Enough of the lessons...it's time to enjoy the jam!

xo