This past week, my sweet friend, Jodi, gave me a packet of liquid fruit pectin. She had a bunch sent from the States for making freezer jam. So I went out and got my strawberries and got to work! I also vaguely remembered a friend telling me once that she had used Jello for making some freezer jam (instead of pectin). So I also got to searching online to see what I could find. I had some extra strawberry jello in my cabinet. So here are the two different recipes I made. The one with pectin makes a slightly nicer jam, but liquid pectin is less than readily available to us here in China. The one with Jello is still nice--a little more red and a little more....well, jello-y. But both come out to be way cheaper than buying small jars of McCormick for nearly Y12 each!
Strawberry Freezer Jam
2 cups crushed strawberries (~4 cups whole)
4 cups sugar
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 3oz packet liquid fruit pectin
Place strawberries in a large bowl and crush with a potato masher (or use a food processor). Add sugar and let stand for 10 minutes. Add in pectin and lemon juice. Stir for about 5 minutes, combining as much as the sugar as you can. Pour into recycled jars or plastic containers, leaving about 1/2 inch of head space. Let stand at room temperature for up to 24 hours, then refrigerate or freeze. Can keep in freezer for up to a year. Could use other berries as well.
Strawberry Freezer Jam with Jello
5 cups strawberries, washed and capped (about 2 1/2 cups crushed)
1 cup sugar
1 large box (6oz) strawberry jello (or two small)
Place crushed strawberries (you can do this with a food processor or a potato masher) and sugar in a large pot. Stir well and allow to sit for 1 hour. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in jello. Pour into containers and put in freezer to set. Thaw in the fridge as needed.
Notes:
With the Jello recipe you could change up what flavor Jello you use with the strawberries! Because it has way less sugar, it makes about half as much as the other recipe, even though it has more strawberries.
There are lots of freezer jam recipes around the internet that tell you how to use regular powdered fruit pectin (I did see one seller on Taobao with Sure Jell). It just involves a little cooking whereas the liquid pectin does not.
Strawberry Freezer Jam
2 cups crushed strawberries (~4 cups whole)
4 cups sugar
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 3oz packet liquid fruit pectin
Place strawberries in a large bowl and crush with a potato masher (or use a food processor). Add sugar and let stand for 10 minutes. Add in pectin and lemon juice. Stir for about 5 minutes, combining as much as the sugar as you can. Pour into recycled jars or plastic containers, leaving about 1/2 inch of head space. Let stand at room temperature for up to 24 hours, then refrigerate or freeze. Can keep in freezer for up to a year. Could use other berries as well.
Strawberry Freezer Jam with Jello
5 cups strawberries, washed and capped (about 2 1/2 cups crushed)
1 cup sugar
1 large box (6oz) strawberry jello (or two small)
Place crushed strawberries (you can do this with a food processor or a potato masher) and sugar in a large pot. Stir well and allow to sit for 1 hour. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in jello. Pour into containers and put in freezer to set. Thaw in the fridge as needed.
Notes:
With the Jello recipe you could change up what flavor Jello you use with the strawberries! Because it has way less sugar, it makes about half as much as the other recipe, even though it has more strawberries.
There are lots of freezer jam recipes around the internet that tell you how to use regular powdered fruit pectin (I did see one seller on Taobao with Sure Jell). It just involves a little cooking whereas the liquid pectin does not.
I've been using the jam setting on my bread machine to quickly make some batches of jam, using some powdered pectin I got on Taobao. It was not expensive, and I've been pretty happy with the jam...though it's a bit runnier than what you'd buy in the store. :)
ReplyDeleteJessica can you link the pectin from Taobao?
ReplyDeleteSheila--the one with pectin is definitely better. The jello one is just kind of gelatin-y. But the flavor is good still. Its a good option if you don't have the means to get the pectin since Carrefour and import stores have jello. I will probably be adding liquid pectin to my regular America list from here on out! I did see that there was a TB seller for Sure-jell. 35 kuai or so for the box? You just have to find a recipe that tells you how to cook it to get that one to work.