Strawberry jam is easy to make, tastes great and is a perfect gift.

Ingredients:
1 kg fresh strawberries
1 kg jam sugar

Equipment:
Preserving jars with lids and bands
Jam funnel
Jar lifting tongs
Strawberry huller
Large pot for canning

Directions:
– Preheat oven to 110 C.
– Wash and hull strawberries.
– For a chunky jam, leave strawberries whole. For a less chunky jam, chop strawberries.
– Place jars, lids and bands on trays in oven for a minimum of 10 minutes (or just leave in oven while cooking jam).
– Place strawberries and sugar in a large pot and heat over a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.
– Once sugar is dissovled, insert jam thermometer if using, and bring jam to a boil.
– Skim off any foam while boiling.
– Continue to boil until jam setting temperature is reached – 104 C on a jam thermometer or you can also check for setting point using a plate out of the freezer and checking if the jam wrinkles. (Before starting the jam, place a plate in the freezer, after boiling the jam for about 5 min, take the plate out of the freezer and place a small amount of jam on the plate. Leave for about a minute and then push your finger through the jam, if it wrinkles, then the jam in done. If not, boil for a few minutes longer and try again).
– Once the jam is ready, remove from the heat.
– Take your jars out of the oven and carefully ladle the jam into the jars using the funnel, leaving about 1 cm from the top of the jar.
– Place lids and bands on jars.
– Place jars in one layer on the bottom of a large pot or canner. Make sure you have a tea towel or trivet between the bottom of the pot and the jars, so that the jars don’t break.
– Boil jars, in batches, in water for 10 minutes and then remove them to a cooling rack.
– Cool for 12 hours to allow jars to finish sealing.
– After 12 hours, check lids are sealed – press on lid to see if it springs back. If it springs back, then the lid hasn’t sealed properly and will need to be canned again. If the lid doesn’t move, then the lid has sealed properly.
– Label jars and enjoy.

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