I made strawberry jam yesterday and it didn't gel. What do I do?

Foodworm
  • 6889 views
  • 7 Comments

7 Comments

AntoniaJames August 24, 2021
There's a lot of great advice in the other answers, with which I concur without exception.

I've had a lot of problems with strawberry jams over the years. When it doesn't set properly, I just use it as a sauce for ice creams (lemon ice cream, especially!) or slices of pound cake, or we stir it into our homemade Greek yogurt. I've stopped making strawberry jam, making strawberry sauce instead, which freezes nicely. ;o)
 
mm7232 June 26, 2020
Lori's comment contains some tips but without specifics about the fruit, recipe, and type of pectin you used, I would say that it's important to match the type of pectin to the recipe. Jam/jelly/preserve recipes don't work with improvisation; you need to follow the recipe, including the amount of sugar, exactly. Preserving recipes are written for the type of preserve (freezer jam, for example) and require the type of pectin named.
 
louisez June 23, 2020
Hard to figure out without knowing full list of ingredients. If berries, sugar, lemon juice, you might try to re-cook, testing for gel (I use the freezer test). There are recipes where ingredients are combined and left to hang out (in fridge) to develop flavor, so this might work -- assuming ingredients are the same.
 
Teresa June 23, 2020
the fresh preserve website I sent didn't give you directions, here is a much better link that will give you cooking times: https://www.freshpreserving.com/blog/classic-strawberry-jam-0. Hope you can open the link, if you can't go to freshpreserve.com, then head to recipe and classic strawberry jam.
 
Teresa June 23, 2020
Try this jam/jelly 101: https://www.freshpreserving.com/how-make-jam-and-jelly, check out the website. I go here all the time for tips.
 
Lori T. June 22, 2020
It depends on the recipe you used to make jam, and if you added pectin, lemon juice, and sufficient sugar. It could also be the time you cooked the jam was too short. Strawberries are low pectin fruit, and won't set up as a jam on their own. You can recook your jam using a bit more pectin, though I suggest using one that does not require additional sugar so it doesn't end up overly sweet. If you don't want to recook it, you can use the chia seeds to absorb extra liquid- but it will give you a slightly different texture than you might want in a jam. Or you could bottle it up as a wonderful sauce/syrup to use with cakes and other goodies, pancake or waffle topping, or with ice cream. It's still yummy that way too.
 
HalfPint June 22, 2020
I think you can thicken the jam by adding chia seeds. The Kitchn has a basic chia seed jam recipe: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-easy-chia-jam-with-any-fruit-222310

This recipe has a guide as to how much chia seeds to use. With this recipe, you probably will not need to reboil the jam.

 
Recommended by Food52