Rhubarb Strawberry Jam

This recipe is very simple. A classic, sweet and aromatic jam that will make everyone happy. No chia seeds, sugar substitutes or anything fancy, just plain old jam with only fruit and sugar. While I do like the new ways of making jam with chia seeds and maple syrup and so on (it does feel good when you know you’re eating healthier), I do like the real jam as well. And my children definitely like that better than the new varieties (it is understandable, they don’t care about being brave and eating less sugar, on the contrary I would say).

So this jam is for you out there who like the jam to taste like your grandma’s used to do. This one does actually taste very much like my grandma’s, although my grandma never used rhubarb for anything, except a rhubarb cake with a kind of soft meringue on top (which brings back memories again and I wonder why I never baked that cake myself). But she did make a killer strawberry jam, very sweet so you would only scrape a teaspoon of it on your bread slice or crepe and that would still be sweet enough, but so aromatic that you sometimes just had to eat a teaspoonful of it without bread at all, just for the taste of it.

My jam is not quite as sweet as my grandma’s, the addition of rhubarb and lemons gives it a wonderfully tart note.

And I promise this is the only rhubarb recipe this week. 🙂 I did make a wonderful rhubarb-strawberry dessert yesterday, but I didn’t take a picture of it. I thought that would be too much rhubarb for the time being. 🙂

If you would like to make some rhubarb syrup with the leftover peel, here is the recipe.

And another link regarding sterilizing your jars here.

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Rhubarb Strawberry Jam

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  50 mins

Total time:  1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 5 -6 jars

Ingredients

• 500 g/ about 1 pound strawberries, weighed after cleaning
• 1 kg/ about 2 pounds rhubarb, weighed after cleaning and peeling
• 2 organic lemons
• 1 apple
• 1,5 kg/ about 3 pounds granulated sugar

Instructions

1. Wash and hull the strawberries and clean and peel the rhubarb. Halve the strawberries and cut the rhubarb into small pieces.
2. Grate the zest of one lemon and juice both of them. Grate the apple as well.
3. Place all the ingredients in a large pan, bring to a boil while stirring often and let cook for about 50-60 minutes until the jam starts to thicken. There will be quite a lot of foam forming during this time, make sure you remove that properly, it is not nice to have it in your jam, and I read somewhere that the jam will not keep that long if you haven't removed the foam before pouring the jam into the jars.
4. The cooking time is not an exact science, I am afraid. It depends a lot on how much jam you are making, on how big your pot is and how much pectin the fruit contains. You could already start checking after 30 minutes or so. I normally have an eye for it, I scoop some juice on a spoon and check how the drops are falling down from it, if that happens quickly the jam needs more time, if the drops take a moment to form, kind of come together, fall down slowly and seem to be thick enough than I stop the cooking process. This method is maybe not very appropriate for an inexperienced eye (it doesn't always work for me either) so for better results you should try the following:
5. Place a small plate in the freezer at the beginning of the cooking time. Check the consistency of the jam by dropping a few drops of juice on the plate. Put the plate back in the freezer and check again after a couple of minutes (not too long). The jam drops should wrinkle when pushed with the finger. If they don't wrinkle, keep cooking and checking until you get them to wrinkle.
6. While the jam is cooking prepare the jars. There are a lot of instructions on the internet about the best way to do that, for example here: http://www.taste.com.au/how+to/articles/572/how+to+sterilise+jars+and+bottles
7. To tell you the truth I don't make myself so much work, I just pour boiling water into the jars, place the lid on and shake. Then I pour the water out of the jars and place the jars onto clean towels until ready to use. If you follow my method is at your own risk. Just read other sources and decide what you want to do.
8. Pour the jam into the prepared jars and seal tightly.
9. rhubarb, strawberry, jam, marmalade, preserves, canning, spring, sweet, breakfast, spread, jars
10. This recipe is very simple. A classic, sweet and aromatic rhubarb strawberry jam that will make everyone happy.

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