Strawberry Honey Jam Recipe - No White Sugar, No Pectin (2024)
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This Strawberry Honey Jam is one of our most popular recipes. In fact, it has won many blue ribbon awards, not only across the country, but across the globe.
We love to get emails from those that have made it and happily share that the jam won their local, county fair award.
Who knew that a jam that contained no refined white sugar and no pectin would be that good! Especially when compared to traditional jam, which typically requires 7 cups of sugar for every 2 pints.
When you think about it, that is a lot of sugar!!! And that is why this strawberry honey jam keeps becoming more and more popular.
Plus, it is easy to make! In fact, you can even make Instant Pot Strawberry Honey Jam!
So how do you make jam using no white sugar and no pectin? The answer, with just 4 natural ingredients.
Strawberry Honey Jam
It all starts with 6 pounds of strawberries. It is obviously best to use fresh picked strawberries whenever possible. Not only are those strawberries fresh out of the strawberry patch, they are much sweeter than store bought.
However, we also understand, that not everyone can find a place to purchase or pick strawberries.
Therefore, the recipe below has been adjusted for store-bought strawberries. If you do use fresh picked or super sweet strawberries, you can decrease the honey to 1 1/2 – 2 cups.
To start making Strawberry Honey Jam, begin by hauling and slicing the strawberries in half or quarters if they are large.
Then place them in a large stockpot. Next, core your apples. However, do not peel them! The peel contains natural pectin that will help thicken your jam. Then grate with stand mixer or place your apples in a food processor using the grating blade and place in the pot.
Cooking Instructions
Add in the honey and lemon juice and bring the strawberry honey jam to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer.
After about 15 minutes, use a potato masher to mash the strawberry mixture. Continue to simmer for 45 – 60 minutes or until thickened.
Remember, this strawberry honey jam will not be as thick as traditional jam that uses boxes of pectin and refined white sugar. However, it will continue to thicken as it cools.
When the desired thickness has been reached, you can either let it cool and place the jam in freezer jars. Or, you can use hot and sterilized half-pint or pint jars and place in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.
As a reminder about honey – Honey can contain botulism spores that can cause botulism in kids less than a year of ago. Water bath canning will not kill them. So this jam should not be consumed by those under a year of age to be safe.
Enjoy!
Mary and Jim
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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Yield: 8 half pints
Strawberry Honey Jam
Homemade strawberry jam made without white sugar or pectin. Only 4 natural ingredients required!
Ingredients
6 lbs strawberries
3 cups local honey, *see note
2 small Granny Smith apples
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Hull strawberries and cut in each strawberry in half (or quarters if large), place in a large stockpot.
Cut the sides of the apples away from the core and grate the apple leaving the skins on. (I used my food processor) Place in pot with the strawberries.
Pour the lemon juice and honey in the stock pot and stir.
Heat mixture on high until boiling, stirring occasionally. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, reduce heat to medium low to simmer.
Simmer for approximately 15 minutes until the strawberries become soft. Using a potato masher, mash the strawberries so there are no recognizable, whole sections. If you have an immersion blender, you can use this instead.
Simmer for another 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. The longer the mixture simmers, the thicker the consistency. (Remember, this will not be as thick as the consistency made with sugar and/or pectin).
Strawberry Honey Jam can either be placed in freezer safe jars and stored in the refrigerator or freezer, or canned using a hot water bath canner with 10 minutes of processing time.
Notes
*Decrease the amount of honey if using fresh picked or sweet strawberries or if your local honey is strong in flavor. Use 1 1/2-2 cups of honey instead of the full amount.
If you really want to thicken it to a more spreadable consistency, the easiest way is to heat it up with some thickeners such as cornstarch. Arrowroot flour is more delicate and taste-neutral, but most cooks won't have it. Unflavored gelatin may also be used. Bring the syrupy “jam” to boil in a pot.
“Sugar serves as a preserving agent, contributes flavor, and aids in gelling. Cane and beet sugar are the usual sources of sugar for jelly or jam. Corn syrup and honey may be used to replace part of the sugar in recipes, but too much will mask the fruit flavor and alter the gel structure.
Less sugar may allow for greater bacterial growth. As a result, process times may be longer for these low-sugar or no-sugar jams and jellies. Some pectin products include preservatives to reduce bacterial growth, as well as to preserve color.
Honey can be safely used when making homemade jam. When using honey in place of sugar in jams, you will want to use 7/8 cup of honey for every 1 cup of sugar in a recipe, according to Pick Your Own. This is because honey is sweeter than sugar.
To remake cooked jam or jelly without added pectin, for each 1 L (4 cups) jam or jelly add 25 mL (2 tbsp) bottled lemon juice.Heat to boiling and boil jam or jelly hard 3 to 4 minutes, then test for signs of gelling.
With a simple lemon juice trick, your homemade jam will achieve your desired thick texture. Preparing jam is about capturing the sweet essence of the fruit while simultaneously cooking it down to the perfect syrupy consistency.
Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you need to use less. Decrease other liquids in the recipe by 1/4 cup, because there's water in the honey too. Lower the baking temperature by 25°F. Honey makes baked goods brown faster.
Over one cup, use about 2/3-3/4 cup of honey for every cup of sugar. This is because honey is actually sweeter than sugar. Honey is a liquid, so you'll need to reduce the liquid in the recipe a little. Do this at a rate of 1/4 cup less liquid for every cup of honey used in the recipe.
You can make jam from berries or plums etc without much sugar but it will not keep so long. Sugar in jam is essentially just a preservative. Lots of recipes call for twice the weight of sugar. You can mostly get away with half the weight and still have a long shelf life.
The amount of sugar you need to make jam depends on the amount of pectin in your chosen fruit, but generally the fruit-to-sugar ratio for traditional jams is 1:1 (ie. 450g/1lb sugar to 450g/1lb fruit).
While this trick won't work for jam recipes that already call for pectin, adding pectin to a loose batch of jam while re-cooking it almost guarantees that the jam with set back up nicely. Whisk a tablespoon of powdered pectin (preferably the no-sugar-needed variety) into the pot of cooking jam.
(2)Most jam recipes call for a 1:1 ratio of fruit to sugar. I usually use a 75 % ratio, or 1 ½ pounds of sugar to every 2 pounds of fruit, unless the fruit is not very sweet, in which case, I adjust accordingly. I don't recommend going below 75 % because the sugar is also acting as the preservative for the fruit.
- Honey should not be mixed with hot foods or water. - Honey should not be consumed when you are working in a hot environment. - Honey should never be combined with ghee or mixed with hot, spicy foods; fermented beverages (e.g., whiskey, rum, brandy); or mustard.
Yes, you can substitute honey for sugar or sugar for honey in a Pomona's Pectin recipe written specifically for one or the other. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you use less of it when substituting for sugar. Conversely, when substituting sugar for honey, you will use more sugar to achieve the same sweetness.
The chia seeds soak up the juice and moisture from fruit purée and plump up, giving a thickening effect to the jam without using heat or added sugar or pectin. Think of it as a chia seed pudding made with fruit rather than milk.
If you simply take fruit and cook it with some sugar to sweeten it a little, it will get thick enough to turn into jam by the naturally occurring pectin in the fruit and the process of reduction. Reduction occurs when we simmer the fruit, and the liquid turns to steam and evaporates, which thickens the jam.
If it still hasn't set, it's time to determine how much jam needs to be recooked. You don't want to remake more than 8 cups (4 pints) at a time. For every 4 cups of jam that needs to be remade, whisk together 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon powdered pectin.
Introduction: My name is Jeremiah Abshire, I am a outstanding, kind, clever, hilarious, curious, hilarious, outstanding person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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