This small batch strawberry vanilla jam is the perfect preserve for when you’re working on the fly. You don’t need pectin to make it set, and it cooks lightning fast. Try it next time you have an abundance of berries!
As many of you know, I live in a fairly compact apartment (remember these pictures of my kitchen?). My husband and I have something in the neighborhood of 1,050 square feet that we call our own. In the last three years, my canning habit has expanded and between empty jars, full jars and equipment, occupies a goodly amount of our available storage space. Over the last 12 months, it was necessary as I was creating and testing recipes for my cookbook project.
This summer, I’ve decided that it’s time to scale back just a bit. And though I love having enough to give away to friends and family, I just don’t need to make vast batches of strawberry jam that yield five or six pints. For my own use, just a few half pint jars will most certainly do. And so I’m going to try something new here on the blog.
Every week or two, I’ll be posted a recipe under the header “Urban Preserving.” These recipes will be small batch preserves, all scaled to use just a pint, a quart or pound of produce. The yields will be petite, perfect for those of you who have small households or are short on space, time or cash.
Before I left town for the Memorial Day holiday, I turned a quart of strawberries into small batch strawberry vanilla jam. I bought the berries on a Sunday, chopped them up when I returned home from the farmers’ market and tossed them with a cup of sugar and a split vanilla bean. Poured into a jar, the berries took a three-day rest in the refrigerator. I didn’t actually intend to let them macerate for that long, but as so often happens, life was busy and I just could not find the time to make jam until Wednesday night.
One of the true joys of small batch canning is that there’s no need to pull out a giant pot to serve as your water bath. A small one does the job just fine. I have two such pots that work well as a tiny canning pot. The first is the asparagus pot that I wrote about here. The second is the tall, spouted pot you see above.
Called a 4th burner pot, this is truly one of the best and most versatile pieces of cookware I own. I love it for making pickles, because you can heat the brine in it and then pour it directly into the jars. It makes the perfect gravy pot during the holidays. It can double as a tea kettle. And because it’s got that rack, it makes a terrific small batch canning pot. See how perfectly those three half-pint Elite jars fit into it?
So, to catch up, I poured the jar of chopped, macerated strawberries into a 5 1/2 quart pot. I added an additional cup of sugar (bringing the total to 2 cups) and removed the vanilla bean pods. I turned up the heat and inserted a thermometer to track the temperature. I cooked the jam to 220 degrees and also eyeballed the back of the spoon, rivulet test. A lemon’s worth of juice and zest went it towards the end of cooking.
There’s another reason that making small batch jam is so satisfying. Because there’s less volume in the pot, it cooks down more quickly. That means it’s easier to get it to 220 degrees and often means that you can skip the pectin in recipes that might otherwise need it (I know that there are some of you who eschew the pectin entirely, but I’ve always found it necessary when making strawberry jam). Shorter cooking time also means a fresher tasting jam and such glowing color!
The jam was poured into the hot half pint jars (it fit exactly, but I scraped every droplet out of the pot to ensure evenly filled jars), lids were applied and the jars were stacked into the rack. Lowered into the pot, they spent 10 minutes simmering in the handy 4th burner pot.
Within 45 minutes of when I turned on the heat under my jam pot, the jars were out of the canner and pinging on the counter top. I took one jar up to Northampton last weekend to share with our hosts. The other two jars are tucked away for next winter.
A non-narrative, traditionally organized recipe is below. For more strawberry recipes, click here.
Small Batch Strawberry Vanilla Jam
Ingredients
- 1 quart strawberries a little over 1 1/2 pounds, should be approximately 4 cups of chopped berries
- 2 cups sugar divided
- 1 vanilla bean split and scraped
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
Instructions
- Wash and chop berries. Toss them with 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla beans/seeds and place in a large jar or bowl.
- Allow the berries to macerate for at least 2-3 hours and up to 72 hours.
- When you’re ready to make the jam, prepare three half pint jars.
- Pour macerated strawberries into a large pot and add the remaining cup of sugar.
- Bring to a boil and cook until the jam reaches 220 degrees, stirring very regularly.
- Add the lemon zest and juice in the final 5 minutes of cooking.
- Once the jam has reached 220 degrees, remove the pan from the heat.
- Pour jam into your prepared jars.
- Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in your canner for 10 minutes (normally I’d admonish you not to start your timer until the water has returned to a boil. However, as long as your water is quite hot when the jars go into the canner, the time it will take to return to boiling should be minimal).
- When time is up, remove jars from canner and let them cool on a towel-lined counter top.
- When jars are cool enough to handle, remove rings and check seals.
- If any jars are not sealed, store them in the fridge and use them first.
- Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place.
Notes
Great idea on the Urban Preserving series. (That’s a great name for a blog or book! in its own right). I love your blog but am totally intimidated by canning, mainly because I would have to get SO many ingredients, etc, to make it worth it. These smaller batches make it seem easier. Looking forward to trying these recipes and tips. Thank you!
I am macerating strawberries that I purchased earlier today and just received an e-mail saying my vanilla beans have been shipped. So I will be holding out on these strawberries till my beans arrive! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for these smaller batch jams…perfect for me. I’ll definitely be trying them. But perhaps not the strawberry too soon since I just made up a huge batch.
Thank you for this post. I have to confess that I have always done this in the summer time when the berries are fresh. I am thankful to have my canned preserves in the winter time, but I love having what I call “fresh jam” in the summer time. Sometimes I add a little cornstarch to thicken it up and often only use 1/4 cup of sugar per quart of berries. I love that fresh summer taste. I always was a little embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t real jam when people have commented how tasty it was.
I live in a Philly condo and my husband and I don’t agree on what flavor jelly/jam so I am thrilled for this series.
I am confused though. You can stack the jars like that in the water bath?
I love the smaller recipes AND the spouted pot! I just ordered one from Amazon. I hope you get credit for the link – if Amazon still does that.
i love this, too! I can only foist off so much jam and jelly on friends and family. thank you for this feature!
I love vanilla in jams as it gives a heightened sense of flavor. Another trick is to use sweet sherry, just a splash, to heighten and brighten the flavor.
Thanks for the tip about the 4th burner pot.
Definitely bookmarking this and making soon! Love the cute jars!
Fabuloso! As others say here, I’ll be watching for more of your Urban Preserving posts. Just the other day the thought of hauling out my large canning pot was exhaustive. I’ve seen asparagus cookers but didn’t think that they could double as water bath pots. But the tall, sprouted pot’s rack- hum, something to think about.
THANKYOU sooo much for this announcement!
Ive just started preserving for the first time in my life. I am a New Zealander and my fiance is Canadian so we have a lot of recipes we want to try. My future mother in law gave me a family Mennonite recipe book on my request and Ive thoroughly enjoyed learning and making North American type food that we don’t have much of over here. The problem I have is that every preserving recipe I have in my hands caters for women with more than a dozen mouths to feed. Ive predicted that buying huge preserving jars for just myself and token Canadian will be a total pain in the butt plus ehem.. expensive..
PS Love your kitchen – looks just like mine in size so I have hope
Thank you so much for this new series. My family just won’t be able to use huge amounts of jams, but I’ve been dying to start canning. I was going to email you and ask about how to reduce the recipe. I’m trying this on Sunday after I take my daughter strawberry picking.
THANK YOU!!!! FINALLY! I have been scouring the web for recipes that are smaller portioned. I am SO excited for these posts!
And this is good for those of us worried about (or prone to) messing up a recipe and not wasting a bunch of produce/money. I just purchased a GIANT canning pot this past weekend because my trusty stockpot (really a dutch oven) just isn’t tall enough. HUGE difference between it and the 21.5qt monstrosity that takes over the stove. I might be picking up that small pot you have this weekend- hooray for mom’s discount at the kitchen store!
This idea rocks, it will let me get canning!
Needless to say, this is right up my alley! Thanks so much for doing small batches 🙂
Yay! I am so excited for some small batch recipes. We are limited on space too. I cant wait to be able to try more recipes out.
Thank you!
I should do more small batch canning…it seems like my huge canning pot takes an hour to start boiling (and that’s starting with hot tap water).
That looks really yummy and I really love your idea for Urban Preserving posts, that will be perfect for me and my wee apartment!
Oh, wonderful! I don’t quite have the room to put up oodles of jams myself. This is a great start…I’m looking forward to more of these posts! Thank you!
Awesome! I’ve gotten a bunch of preserving cookbooks, including one with a chair in the title and all of them make a shitton of jam. There’s only us and the hounds, we can’t eat that much jam. I am so thrilled you’ve posted this…and vanilla-strawberry, well ring a ding ding!
I’ve actually been doing small batch canning since I started. It was my way of trying out recipes. I scaled the recipes accordingly, and they’ve always turned out. Most recently, I’ve been making your strawberry vanilla jam. It SO wonderful!
Where did you get that wire cage you put the jars in? That would be hand as my stock pot I can in isn’t wide enough for a rack.
Brandee, that wire cage came with the 4th burner pot that I described in the post. That’s a big part of why I love that little pot so much.
I, too, am excited about more small batch recipes. I have significantly more space than you. But keeping a variety of whatever comes home from the produce market sounds better than the zillion quarts of peaches my mother and grandmother used to put up. A person can get tired of peaches. On another note, I have had limited luck with jam that has no added pectin, so I need to pay more attention to what the variables are there. Temperature? I’ll be listening.
This excites me so! Your small batch recipes are going to be perfect for me, as I have very limited time and there are only 2 of us at home. Thank you for sharing. BTW – I made a batch of your Sweet & Sour Pickled Red Onions last week and they turned out great. They tasted so good even before I put them in the jars to process, so I know they will be even more delish after sitting for a week. As an added bonus, the color looks so pretty sitting on the shelf in my pantry. I have several more recipes marked for testing soon.
So good you are doing this I notice so many people who are not able to do large batch and so many times we do just have enough for a baby batch…Thanks for the tip on the 4th burner pot…
This sounds yummy – although I don’t do “small” batches of anything around here, I might just have to buy a quart of strawberries today to try out a batch – I even have some vanilla on hand 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I love the idea of the Urban Preserving recipes….It’s so much more convenient than spending hours preserving tons of fruit/veg!
Great! This is a recipe I might try since I’m adverse to big scale canning operations.
So excited about the small batch recipes! And what a brilliant idea to use an asparagus pot as a canner. I have one, but have never used it. I have a feeling it’ll get a lot of use this summer. Thanks for being so creative!
One of the great things I’ve learned from your web site is that you can do preserving in stages without any harm. My life also gets real busy, and like many canners, I can get a little over enthusiastic when buying. I have cherry vanilla jam macerating in the fridge and it’s been there since Monday. Tonight’s the night!
My favorite canning book is The Complete Book of Small Batch Canning. Everything I have made out of it has been wonderful. I live in the city, have a tiny community garden spot, yet these small recipes are do-able with my own produce. Love it.
This looks like a great technique! Is it really ok to stack the jars like that? I haven’t done much actual canning – I do mainly freezer jam and refrigerator pickles, although I did do a buttload of peaches last year!
Awesome ideas! I look forward to reading more “small batch” recipes. I had to get a cabinet to put all my canning stuff in.. and am running out of space already!
Marisa, thanks so much for posting this small batch recipe. This is the first time I finally realized that you can stack the jars in the water bath (duh, I know). This is so practical, too! I have a tiny galley kitchen, a lack of hours for a big job, and a hot kitchen so this makes the canning and jamming I want to do this summer, much more feasible. I look forward to the urban preserving posts and even more to your book!!
This is great! I started reading your blog a few weeks ago in an attempt to educate myself on canning. I am scared to try it because recipes do call for so much fruit/veg, time and effort. And I am notorious for screwing up the first try at EVERY recipe!
These small batches will be great for learning and for my small house of DH and I. Can’t wait for future Urban Preserving posts!
Hello! I have been looking for smaller recipes.
I used to make about 20 quarts each of jam from every fruit I could get my hand on, plus pickles etc.
My girls have their own homes and children now, and I have moved from a home where my cold room was about 20×20 and
moved into a mini home. I am alone except for my Mama who came to live with me last summer.
So I am very limited in space, not as much consumed, but I still like to have homemade.
Thank you for providing smaller amount recipes.
Charlie
thank you! this is perfect for keeping my skills broadening AND for those little batches of things that are “fancy” – the stuff i can give away as gifts etc.
Yay! There’s only my husband and I, also with limited storage space, so I’m super psyched for these small batch guides. I might just have to use this one after my strawberry picking. Thanks!
I love this… we can only use so many jars of jam in a year, and our apartment is currently 500 sf. Finding a place to keep the jars is a huge challenge.
This post comes at the perfect time, since I have one quart of strawberries left over from last night’s monster freezer jam making session. I love making freezer jam because it gives you the fresh picked taste, since it’s not been cooked, but I think I’m ready to make my very first “real” jam!
Brilliant idea. I often hear my students say that even a six jar batch is too much, and this is such a smart way to address their concerns. Thank you for continuing to be such a thoughtful contributxor to the canning conversation.
Love your Urban Preserving rule…short on space, time or cash! I am all over this and looking forward to many Urban Preserving posts. As always, thank you for sharing! 🙂
Marisa this is terrific!!! I’m starting a folder in my documents titled URBAN PRESERVING just for these recipes! How awesome! Heading to Maine next week where their seasons are a bit later than ours and I may be able to make some with my sister!!! Look forward to more of these types of recipes!!! Thanks so much!
I love this new header. Last summer I did a lot of small batch canning in large part due to your blog and your recipes. It is a fantastic way to intoroduce oneself to canning and to new flavors and textures. Being short on storage space (sorta: I reserve my pantry for jars and jars of tomato sauce) and TIME (three kids, ages 3 to 6), small batch canning was a revelation. “Urban Preserving” will be great for me, too! Thanks, Marisa!
It’s hot as blue blazes in Charleston already, so most of our strawberries are already gone. But we’ve got a trip to the (cooler) mountains planned, and I love that I can make this without lugging all of my processing equipment on a trip! Thanks!
I made strawberry vanilla a couple of weeks ago and it was killer. I love your small batch methods!! As always inspiring!!! XO!
Love this. I think you are the only other foodie that has a kitchen as small as mine, although yours is arguably better outfitted. This will be perfect for helping me make the best of a case of jars and get a nice range of goodies.
Marisa, where can we find a 4th burner pot with rack like that? I would love to get my hands on one… 🙂
If you click the link where I first mention it, you should be taken to the amazon listing for that pot.
This is great! I think this “urban preserving” feature is going to be my go-to 🙂
Yum. I’m hoping and praying for a better strawberry season here in Portland this year. Last year was dismal. With a three-year-old around, we go through a lot of jam, but I’m excited for adding vanilla to more jams this year!