Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

As it turns out, my last cooking-type post had to do with strawberries and rhubarb. Now, about 10.5 months later, I have another strawberry and rhubarb recipe to share. 

Despite our extended winter, some of the early garden plants are growing nicely, including my rhubarb plant. We had some nice weekend weather which provided a good opportunity to get out, do some weeding and harvest most of the stalks that had emerged on my plant. Because the plant was already sending out some flowering stalks, I wanted to get it cut back to stimulate growth of more edible stalks. Also, i was eager to make the first pie of the season. Given the large quantity of stalks that were ready for harvest, I decided to go ahead and make a batch of jam. We were already buying strawberries so I had my husband get the extra large container of them from the store.

Before I proceed to the recipe, here's a little breakdown of the differences between jellies, jams,, and preserves:

Jellies are made from fruit juice which is typically extracted from cooked, crushed fruit. The process of making jelly involves straining the cooked fruit through some type of very fine sieve or fine mesh fabric. The resulting juice is then cooked with sugar, and sometimes pectin, to create a firm texture.

Jams are made from chopped fruit that is cooked down with sugar and often pectin. Jams are looser in texture than jellies and are more spoonable and spreadable.

Preserves contain larger pieces of fruit, or even whole fruit. Cherry or strawberry preserves often contain whole fruit. The syrup in which the fruit is held together may be more like a syrup or more like a jam.

A quick word about pectin. Pectin is a soluble fiber that is found in fruit. it is used as a thickener in jams and jellies. You can buy it in boxes or in a jar. Given that the amount of jam that I make at a time can vary greatly based on the fruit that I have on hand, I've come to prefer just having a jar on hand from which I can spoon out the given amount that I want. One 2-ounce box of pectin contains approximately 3.5 tablespoons of pectin.

The amounts listed below will make approximately five 1/2 pint jars. I will add some comments below the recipe regarding our preferences and ways that you can introduce your own style.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

• 4 cups of chopped rhubarb
• 4 cups of chopped strawberries
• 4 tablespoons of pectin
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 cups of sugar

Stir all ingredients together and bring to a boil on the stove. Cook until mixture is slightly thickened and the fruit is cooked to your satisfaction. Here is what mine looked like when I was finished.

A few considerations regarding fruit and sugar ratio:

Remember that rhubarb is tart and strawberries are sweet. I like using equal ratios in my jam. I've seen some recipes that use a greater strawberry-to-rhubarb ratio. Feel free to start with smaller quantities of fruit and then figure out what you like.

We tend to like the tartness in the strawberry-rhubarb mixture. As such, we limit our sugar to 2 cups. You could always increase the amount of sugar. Consider trying an initial batch with smaller quantities such as 1 cup each of the two fruits and 1/2 cup of sugar and then adjust from there before proceeding with a larger batch.

Processing the jam:

Ladle hot jam into prepared jars and process in a boiling water bath canner. The standard processing time for sea level is about 15 minutes. Because I live at a higher elevation, I process for 25 minutes.

For guidance on processing, I recommend consulting the Ball Blue Book for canning. You can see that my copy is pretty beat up, but it's my "go to" source. You can see from the picture at the top of the post that I used both half-pint jars and smaller half-cup jars. At the end of the day, the choice is yours. I tend not to use pint jars much for jams anymore because we just don't go through it fast enough now that there are only two of us in the house.

Enjoy your jam on toast, scones, biscuits, or anything else you like!