Strawberry Recipes

Recipes #3-6

STRAWBERRY RECIPES

No matter where you live, everybody likes strawberries.

3. Strawberry Preserves

4 cups strawberries, washed and drained

4 cups cane sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Slice strawberries, big berries cut in quarters, other just cut in half. Place in large bowl and pour on sugar. Mix gently. Juice will begin to flow from berries. Cover and let set over night.  Put into a heavy pot and slowly bring to a low boil. Simmer fruit, stir often (it may stick so be careful). Remove the strawberries with a slotted spoon or skimmer. Bring the liquid to a boil and cook until the liquid starts to jell.Add the strawberries back to the thickened liquid and bring back to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and put into prepared jars. Take a slim spatula and make sure there is no air in the fruit. Carefully put enough liquid to bring within 1/4 of top. Seal and process 10 minutes in boiling water bath in canning pot. Let jars set over night, test for seals.

If you have a lot of strawberries that you want to make into preserves use 4 cups of sliced berries to 4 cups of sugar equation and put in a crock pot for 6 to 8 hours. Then follow the above directions on processing.

Take a look at the beautiful jars of REAL Strawberry Preserves.

4- Strawberry Jam

6 cups strawberries, chopped

1/4 cup lemon juice (real lemon not plastic squeeze)

6 cups cane sugar

1 package pectin

Mix all ingredients except sugar in a large pot. Slowly bring to full boil, stirring constantly. Add sugar and bring back to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat, put into prepared jars. Fill to 1/4 inch of top. Seal and process 10 minutes. Let cool overnight, then check for unsealed jars to be reprocessed. Jars are ready for labels or however you have planned to decorate your jars.

If you want to decorate your jars and put them in a basket for a gift. Try using Jar Dolies to cover the top. It will give your gifts the real old fashioned look. For the standard jars make you dolies 5 inches in diameter. For the wide mouth jars make the dolies 7 inches in diameter. We used to search all the stores that might have fabric to try to find cloth with fruit patterns. We even checked the stores in the towns we were doing shows in.

5- Strawberry Jelly

4 cups Strawberry Juice (crush 6 – 8 cups of strawberries, place in colander and let drain. If the berries don’t give you enough juice then take the crushed berries and boil with 1 cup water. Allow to cool and then strain.)

1 boxes Pectin

2 teaspoons lemon juice

4 cups cane sugar

Mix Strawberry juice, lemon  juice and pectin in large pot. Bring to boil while stirring.  Add sugar and bring back to boil. Boil for 1 minute then check with spoon to make sure it is jelling. Drops should sort of stick as they drip from spoon. Remove from heat and let set for a few minutes. Skim the top of the liquid to remove any forms or gathers at top.

Ladle into prepared jars and seal and process 10 minutes. Let jars set over night, don’t tilt or anything as they need to jell without any disturbance. The next day the jelly should be set, although sometimes it might take 2 or 3 days. The jars are ready to eat or label.

Jar dolies decorate a plain jar and make it special

6- Strawberry Syrup

6 cups of Strawberry Juice  (If you like bits of fruit in your syrup, you can use crushed fruit)

3 cups sugar

3 cups light corn syrup

Combine all ingredients, bring to boil slowly. Stir and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. Syrup is now ready for bottles or jars, which ever you decide to use.  Fill the jars or bottles to within 1/4 inch, clean the rims and place lids. Process for 10 minutes. Let cool, the bottles are ready to enjoy. or give for gifts.