Freezer jam is easy to make! With just three ingredients you’re on your way to stocking your freezer with slivers of summer.
When I realized how easy it was to make delicious, homemade jam I ditched grocery store jam altogether.
While the strawberry jam recipe we use isn’t original to us, it’s the perfect way to preserve fresh strawberries. This is a recipe my husband’s family has been using since he was a boy. So not only is it sentimental to us, but it’s a special way to pass on a part of his history to our children.
Every summer, I look forward to heading to the farmer’s market to purchase flats of strawberries. I let my children snack on as many berries as their bellies can handle, and when we get home, we start preserving our sweet, summer harvest.
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How to Make No-Cook Strawberry Freezer Jam with Sure-Jell
The recipe for Sure-Jell freezer jam only requires three ingredients. And in just 30 minutes, you can have freezer jam!
To make your homemade strawberry freezer jam, you will need:
Ingredients:
– a few cups of sugar
– crushed strawberries
– a box of pectin
Supplies:
– a freezer-safe container
– a canning funnel
– a large bowl
– a potato masher
Directions:
Using a potato masher, crush about 4 cups of chopped strawberries to yield about 2 cups of crushed strawberries. Pour the crushed strawberries into a large bowl.
Add 4 cups of sugar exactly to the crushed strawberries and combine. Stir occasionally for 10 minutes.
Toward the end of your 10 minutes, combine 3/4 cup water and 1 package of original Sure-Jell premium fruit pectin in a small saucepan. Bring to a rapid boil. Stir constantly.
When the Sure-Jell and water reach a rapid boil, stir for 1 minute.
After 1 minute, remove your saucepan from the heat and immediately stir into your strawberries and sugar. Stir until the sugar crystals dissolve, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Immediately transfer to a freezer-safe container. Do not let this mixture set up in your large bowl.
Ladle your freezer jam into a freezer-safe container. I use a canning funnel to keep the freezer jam from getting everywhere.
Leave at least a half-inch to a full inch of space between the top of your container and the freezer jam (in the canning community this is called head space). This will allow for product expansion in the freezer and will prevent your freezer jam from spilling out of your containers or keeping your containers from bursting in storage.
Put a lid on your freezer-safe containers and let them sit at room temperature for at least 24 hours.
After 24 hours, turn your freezer jam on its side. If your jam remains level, it’s ready to put into the freezer.
Label the top of each jar with the year you preserved the strawberry jam. Label the jar “strawberry jam” if you will be unable to recognize what’s in the jar after the jar has been frozen.
Store in the freezer until you’re ready to use.
To use, let thaw in your fridge at least 24 hours before consuming.
What About a Traditional Jam Recipe?
You may find a traditional jam recipe that uses a water bath to seal the lids of the jars. However, you can use the same Sure-Jell pectin mixture.
You will need to follow the directions for the hot processing of the strawberry jam. The directions listed above are for freezer jam only.
The directions listed above are for Sure-Jell pectin only. If you use a different brand of pectin, I can’t promise you will get the same results.
Can I Use Less Sugar in My Strawberry Freezer Jam?
You can!
The Sure-Jell that we use comes in a yellow box and is the original, premium fruit pectin. Sure-Jell has a pectin intended for lower or no-sugar recipes that comes in a pink box.
This was written in 2024. If your Sure-Jell packages look different due to branding, time, or region, use what’s available to you.
If you were to try and use less sugar with the original Sure-Jell pectin, your jam might not be set properly. You must use the exact amount of sugar as required by the recipe to get a freezer jam that sets properly. The same can be said for using a sugar substitute.
Sure-Jell does not provide alternative recipes for sugar substitutes like honey or maple syrup. I would use the low-sugar pectin and follow a trusted recipe.
Easy Strawberry Freezer Jam Recipe
The Sure-Jell strawberry freezer jam recipe is the easiest way to make homemade freezer jam!
There’s nothing better than the middle of winter opening up a jar of jam you preserved at the peak of freshness during the summer.
What’s even better? You can use Sure-Jell to make various fruit jams! We make strawberry, blackberry, and peach freezer jam and store them all in a big chest freezer. I can’t wait to try my hand at raspberry freezer jam!
Can you imagine raspberry freezer jam paired with homemade butter on a hot, homemade English muffin? Yum!
Food preservation for us needs to be quick. We are a busy family with young children. But we are always looking for ways to preserve what we can!
I know that this is a great way to get the freshest-tasting jam using quality ingredients from farmers I love.
We also gladly gift the freezer jam to friends and family. We preserve strawberry freezer jam in smaller jars, like half-pint jars, and gift them to friends and family.
Other Home Canning
If you are just starting to preserve your food, strawberry freezer jam is a great place to start. You can use ripe fruit and a box of Sure-Jell pectin to make delicious strawberry jam. Your first canning project!
You can then move on to turn cucumbers into pickles and even make your applesauce!
The next step is up to you.
I don’t have very many canning recipes up on the blog, but I do have plenty of helpful blog posts about preserving food.
We love to render our cooking fat from the cows and pigs we purchase from local farmers. In this blog post, I also give you some tips for cooking with beef fat!
Animal fats keep very well, and they are absolutely delicious in something like a pie crust. I talk more about some other tips and tricks in that blog post.
If you want to know how you can get beef tallow, I talk about how to source beef, work with a farmer, and request your animal fat from a butcher in Beginner’s Tips for Buying Meat in Bulk.
Be sure to get your cooking fats! Both tallow and lard (pig fat) are usually discarded by butchers.
For more homesteading inspiration, follow me on Pinterest!
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