First jam of the year -- FAIL

Last year's jam lasted us all the way through the year with plenty for gifts. We do have a handful of jars left, but I am super anxious to get started this summer on replenishing the cupboard and expanding my canning repertoire.

So I was excited to (finally) see Hood strawberries at the farmer's market this last weekend and grabbed a half flat. They were so delicious and I couldn't wait to make some jam. Hoods have fantastic strawberry flavor, but they have a pretty limited season and they don't store particularly well except in jam (and probably frozen).

Because they don't keep well at all, as soon as I get them home I get them washed and cut up. The size that you cut them kind of determines the consistency of the jam, especially with strawberries, and this time I wanted a jammier jam (sometimes when I slice the berries larger the syrup never really gels as well as I wanted to, I figured that a smaller dice would mean more squashed berries and a thicken texture).

All the diced berries go into a big bowl with 4 cups of sugar and the juice of 1 lemon for about 24 hours.

The next day it comes out of the fridge and into a large pot. Now onto the stove. The goal is to take it up to the gelling point, now my books say different things, 221°F, or 8° above whatever your particular thermometer reads when water boils, not to mention the spoon method, plate in the freezer method, blah blah blah. More on this later.

Whenever I make jam I remind myself not to get freaked out as it starts to boil up. I always think it is going to boil over, but it never quite does, probably because I use a big pot. If you are going to make jam, use a big pot, jam boiling over seems like just about the worst kitchen mess ever.

Now, my usual method for guessing the gelling point is when after the terrifying near boil over, it turns into a pot of stuff, which to me, resembles what I would think a cauldron of hot magma would look like. Sweet, jammy magma. It gets deeper in color, stops foaming and boiling up.

Rather than call it good at this point, I decided to use the right way and take it all the way up to 221°F by my thermometer. By about 10 degrees short of my goal I could tell something wasn't going according to plan. I ended up with what I am calling a caramelized strawberry jam. Not so much burnt but, well okay it pretty much scorched. I think it may be edible though, not really gift worthy, but perhaps acceptable for a PB&J, so I canned it anyway.

Next batch I will go with my gut or test my thermometer.