Strawberry Jam

The players:


Strawberries (6 pints)
Sugar (5 cups)
Lemon Juice (dash)
Butter (two tablespoons)
Surejell (2 boxes)

Strainer
Two stock pots or other big pots
Lids for said pots
Wooden spoon
Tongs
Sauce pan and lid
Potato masher (sorry folks, this works best anything else will make it too soupy)
Jam jars, lids and rings (I used 12 8 ounce jars but I'm going to try bigger jars this next go round)

Optional:
Veggie peeler (I peeled my strawberries because I dislike the little seeds that much. You can use a knife but that really takes away too much of the berry)

First task: wash the jars, lids and rings in hot soapy water, rinse and set to dry. I added the rings and lids to the sauce pan about half full of warm water and put the pan on the stove to simmer. I filled one of the big pans with about two inches of water in the bottom and put on to boil. I dried the inside of the jars completely and placed them in the boiling water on a little grill thingy (They might have been okay placed directly on the metal pan bottom but I have had one too many Pyrex explode in my kitchen for me to feel comfortable chancing it.). Actually, and I encourage you to skip this next step, I knocked the jars over in the water, fished them out, dried them again and tried again. :)



Wash the strawberries (stainer) and started the peeling process. This took as much time as one would expect. Definitely not my favorite part of the task but completely worth it.



Once this task is happily completed, mash the berries with the p. masher until your happy with the texture. For me, I wanted small tiny bits of fruit so I mashed until I was happy.



Placed the strawberries and dash of lemon juice in the second big pot and placed on the stove to boil. Added a box and a half of Sure Jell, butter and brought to a full rolling boil, stiring constantly.



Stir in 5 cups of sugar and return to your rolling boil for 1 minute. Really, 1 minute.




Add to heated jars and seal with the lids and rings. Enjoy!




Two options for sealing the jars...turn them upside down and hope for the best or you can put them back in the boiling pot they bathed in before and cover for 10 minutes, take them out and listen to them "pop".