A dud recipe for strawberry jam
It looked wrong and it was, and I only made it work by changing it. It was a recipe from the Independent newspaper for strawberry jam. Against my better judgement I tried it.
1kg/2lb strawberries, hulled
1kg caster sugar
The zest and juice of 1 lemon
I used lime instead of lemon, but otherwise followed the recipe. Heat the lot until the sugar dissolves, then boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Ten minutes?!? I thought “this is never going to set.” Where’s the setting agent? The wrinkle test (a spoonful on a cold saucer) showed no propensity to set. Not did it after 15 minutes, 20 or 25. Finally I gave up, poured it into jars and waited. When it was cool, but still sloppy, I put it in the fridge. It had still not set next day, so I poured it all back into the saucepan and added about 125ml of Certo, an apple pectin setting agent. I boiled it up for a couple of minutes, let it cool a little, then poured it again into (newly washed) jars. This time as it cooled I noticed the strawberries were not all floating to the top. It set, and after a spell in the fridge it set even more.
I tasted some on a baguette. What a fantastic fresh taste! But what a lot of unnecessary trouble. Strawberry jams are notoriously hard to set. The easiest way is to use the sugar that supermarkets sell that already has pectin added. However, I ended up with a few excellent jars of homemade strawberry jam, and had my opinion of a certain newspaper reinforced.