The Strawberry-Blackcurrant-Rhubarb Jam

There are few things in life as wonderful as a red, fresh strawberry! Still warm from the sun. Up here in the north of Sweden, the sun never sets in summer so the strawberries get a lot of sun and daylight which is good for them.













I stopped growing strawberries many years ago because the birds ate them. They took a bite out of one berry and left it, then they took a bite out of another and left it ... What a waste! Finally, I got fed up with that and put a net over my plants. What happened? Well, every day, small birds got trapped. Trapped birds were easy targets for our neighbors' cats.

I willingly shared my currants with the birds. I'm not greedy. But who wants currants when there are strawberries to be had. Not the birds anyway. So, now I buy strawberries at the supermarket. How much would you pay for a small box (500 grams) of strawberries? They sell them here for 30 SEK (around 4 USD). They are not expensive but not cheap either. But it is a good thing that you can combine them with rhubarbs and other berries.

Both rhubarb and strawberry are low in pectin. Slightly under ripe black currants are naturally very high in pectin. So, high pectin currants mixed and matched with low pectin berries will make a thicker jam. I am often asked how to tell when black currants are ripe. Take a look at these pictures. The ones to the left are hard, not fully colored and with trace of green on the skins. They are unripe. The ones to the right are soft and uniformly black. They are ripe.










Mixed Berry Jam with Rhubarb
INGREDIENTS:
* 500 grams strawberries, cleaned and hulled
* 250 grams slightly under ripe black currants
* 250 grams rhubarb stalks
* 750 grams granulated sugar
* 1 1/4 dl water (more or less)
* 1/4 dl lemon juice















METHOD:
1. Cut off the stalk ends of the rhubarb, then wash in cold water.
2. Cube or dice the rhubarb stalks.
3. Mix rhubarb, berries and lemon juice with sugar,
4. Let it stand refrigerated overnight.
5. When sugar is dissolved, pour everything into a large stainless steel pot.
6. Add a small amount of water and bring slowly to the boil .
7. Use a large slotted spoon to skim off foam as best as you can.
8. Continue cooking and shaking the pot for another 15 minutes. Now the jam should be thick enough but not as thick as marmalade.















Don't forget to skim off foam from the top. The skimming is more than just an aesthetic thing. The foam that rises to the surface may also be a safety issue. Microorganisms such as mold spores thrive in berry foam. They think it's yummy. But you don't have to be afraid of botulism. It is only a risk with low acid foods such as canned vegetables. For high acid foods, such as jams, Clostridium Botulinum spores will not germinate.

My grandmother used to think molds on jams were harmless. She simply spooned the "fur coat" off the surface. She even said a layer of mold had the power to preserve. We know better now. Mold forms spores that grow deep into the jam.

If the sugar content is not high enough, you have to use a preservative to keep mold spores from growing. Sugar is not just a sweetener, it's a great preservative too when used in large quantities. Sooner or later, a low sugar content means moldy jam. I try to follow the recommendation of the National Food Administration in Sweden: Reduced sugar jams must be prepared with at least 500 grams of sugar per 1000 grams fruit.

I don't enjoy the canning process very much because there is no room for mistakes. So most often I skip that part and ladle everything into small freezer safe containers. Stored in the freezer, the jam will keep for more than 12 months. Once thawed, I keep the jam refrigerated, use it within a few days but it will keep up to two to three weeks in the fridge without any problems.

Here are an assortment of pretty labels for canning jars: Print Labels From Your Printer. Dansukker is offering a free download for these labels. The page is in Swedish, but it doesn't take much to figure out how it works.