How to Cook Perfect No Canning Strawberry Jam

No Canning Strawberry Jam.

You can cook No Canning Strawberry Jam using 4 ingredients and 5 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of No Canning Strawberry Jam

Prepare 2.25 pounds of strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered depending on size (about 5 cups).
You need 1 of +1/4 cup of sugar to start.
Prepare 1 of tiny pinch of salt (as with most sweet recipes, this little bit of salt deepens and rounds out the flavors).
You need 1 Tablespoon of water.

No Canning Strawberry Jam instructions

Put all the ingredients into a pot, stir to distribute the ingredients, and put the pot, uncovered on medium low heat until all the sugar melts and the mixture just starts to bubble. (Usually takes just under 10 minutes for me.).
Turn the heat down to low and simmer, uncovered, for another hour or so, stirring occasionally. If you can scrape fruit solids off the surface of the pot, your heat's too high. It's better to err on the side of lower heat and longer cook time than to cook the fruit to the point that it begins to stick to the bottom of the pot. Just a little of that mild burn can alter the whole batch in a way you might not like so much..
About halfway through the simmer, take a potato masher or a fork and mash the berries to release some more of their natural pectin and to get the jam to the consistency you like. If you like more whole fruit, less mashing, but give it a few good mashes to aid the natural thickening..
Check the sweetness 10 minutes before the jam is done to adjust and add more sugar if needed. Because I like my jam texture something like a thick compote (it's more versatile that way - I can eat it over ice cream, or with yogurt), I don't add pectin or gelatin, and I stop the cooking when the jam has the texture of a thick stew. When it cools, it'll thicken even more, but it won't be that solid gel texture of a storebought jam..
Just berries, some sugar, and a little pinch of salt to get that unadulterated, concentrated, and delicious strawberry flavor. Enjoy! :).