Strawberry jam with whole berries for winter

To make strawberry jam with whole berries, it's better to buy strawberries with firm berries so that they don't turn mushy during the cooking process. After bringing strawberries from the market in the morning, I immediately start processing them, as strawberries spoil quite quickly. I place the strawberries, along with their caps, directly into a colander. I use a spacious colander so that the berries have enough space and won't get squished during rinsing. I dip the colander with the strawberries into a large container of water. After lightly shaking the colander with strawberries in the water, I pull it out. I change the water in the container and dip the berries in the colander into clean water again. If there is sand on the berries, they can be gently swirled by hand. After washing the strawberries in this way, I remove the colander with them from the water. I leave the berries in the colander for a while to let the water droplets drip off.

From the clean, dried berries, I remove the caps. I transfer the strawberries to a suitable deep bowl in batches. I sprinkle each layer of strawberries with sugar, measured according to the recipe. Covering the bowl with plastic wrap, I put it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. If the strawberries were bought in the morning, they should sit in the refrigerator, covered with sugar, for the whole day until evening. In the evening, I cook the jam when the berries have released a lot of juice. Most often, I try to buy strawberries in the evening so that after sprinkling them with sugar, I can leave them overnight and make jam from them in the morning.

In the morning, the strawberries, having released juice, are "floating" in syrup. I gently mix the resulting syrup with the strawberries and some undissolved sugar. I stir very carefully so as not to crush the strawberries. Now I can put the strawberry mixture in the cooking pot over the heat. I bring it to a boil over low heat. During this time, I carefully lift the sugar that has settled at the bottom several times with a wooden spatula.

After boiling, I cook the jam for 5 minutes, removing the foam that forms. After 5 minutes, I turn off the heat and let the jam cool off the stove. When the strawberry jam has cooled, I put it back on the stove and boil it again for 5 minutes. After letting it cool again, I return the jam to the stove a third time. This time, I add a little (according to the recipe) citric acid to the jam. After boiling again, I cook the jam for another 5 minutes. Thanks to the extended intervals between cooking sessions, we get strawberry jam with whole berries.

If the strawberry jam is being prepared for winter, it should be tightly sealed in sterilized jars while still hot. I turn the sealed jar of jam upside down on its lid and leave it under a blanket for 12 hours. I store the sealed jars in a cool place.

At first, the strawberry jam with whole berries seems too thin, but by winter, the syrup thickens and becomes viscous, resembling liquid honey.