Comments on: Strawberry Jam: A Tutorial

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:14:15 +0000

Thanks so much for responding… Since writing the above, I’ve made two more batches (all sealed). Now that I have enough jam to get me through armeggedon, it dawns on me that perhaps I should be more concerned about the “processing” (the boiling of the filled jars). I don’t know much about the science of canning. My belief is that as long as I got a seal with jars fresh out of boiling water, I should be fine. However, many other sources say that I should “process.” If a jar does happen to go bad, will I be able to tell before I die of botulism?

By: eliz

eliz — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:55:46 +0000

Hi, Erin! I’m so happy to hear your jars all sealed and that you liked the flavor. The “official” word (what you’ll find in the Sure Jell instructions and on the Ball site, etc.) is that you can keep sealed preserves safely for one year. But I’ve eaten jam that I’ve had much longer than that and I haven’t died.

By: Erin

Erin — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:20:24 +0000

I just used the above instructions to make my first ever strawberry preserves. All 5 jars sealed (one was about 10 minutes behind the others, but better late than never). There was just a little left over that I had on some bread. It’s definitely not as sugary, glurpy, sweet as other homemade jam that I’ve had, but it has a lot more flavor than store bought! I bought some very cute contemporary Ball jars that I used. I’ll make another batch and will save them for gifts. The only thing I don’t know is how long can these things really sit on the shelf now?