Old-Fashioned Strawberry Preserves

I love preserving the harvest by canning. I will can anything that I can…can. So, as I’ve been writing about strawberries this week, I had to offer a recipe for strawberry preserves!

I found this recipe in an old Farmer’s Wife cookbook. The recipe dates back to the 1930’s and 40’s. This batch of preserves is super duper sweet! It’s so delicious and easy. Here’s what I did.

The night before, put 5 cups of sugar into 4 cups of strawberries.

Let them sit in the fridge all night.

The next day, when it’s canning time, pour the sugar and berries into a large stockpot.

Bring to a boil, and boil for exactly 7 minutes. Word of warning: keep an eye on the pot. Stir often, as it tends to bubble up. Turn down the heat if needed to keep the boiling under control.

Stir in ½ cup of lemon juice, and let boil for another 3 minutes. (Remember to keep an eye on it.)

As always, before you have even started the recipe for preserves, or whatever you’re canning, make sure everything you need for canning is ready. I used half-pint jars today, and had them almost to a boil, ready to go, in the water bath canner. Make sure lids are washed and ready, too.

Spoon the preserves into the hot canning jars, wipe the rims, and screw on the lid and band. Put into the canner.

Once all the jars are filled, I filled 5 half-pints, put on the lid, and bring to a boil.

When the canner starts boiling, set the timer for five minutes.

Once the five minutes is up, turn off the heat, and let the canner sit for a few more minutes.

Remove the jars from the canner, and place on a clean towel on the counter.

Now there’s this thing called fruit float. (If you’ve seen my post on Wild Violet Jam, that’s why the flowers are floating.) Well, this concerned me greatly, and thankfully my Aunt Susie commented on that post with the remedy for floating fruit! So thank you, Aunt Susie, I am following your advice with these preserves! 😊

Once I heard that delightful *pop* of my sealed jars, I turned the jar on its side, and rotated them every 10 minutes or so. I did this to evenly distribute the fruit as my preserves cooled. So no fruit float! If you do not want to fool with turning jars, just stir the preserves real good when you open them for the first time. It tastes the same, but I am crazy about making my preserves look pretty. Be crazy or not, it’s up to you.

I had a little leftover syrup and a few strawberries left, not quite enough to make another jar of preserves. Head over to this recipe for Whipped Cream to see what I did with the leftovers!