Every year around this time, I've had enough of winter and preserved food and I start to really crave fruit. Rhubarb works for awhile, but it doesn't stop me from getting super excited once the first berries are available. Tres found the first strawberry stand this week and got me enough to finally try out the jam recipe I've had my eye on since my sister-in-law gave me a preserving book for Christmas in 2010. I'm happy to say that it was worth the wait. If you get your hands on Eugenia Bone's Well Preserved, I highly recommend the strawberry balsamic jam. I did tweak it a bit, to my own taste, but for the most part, followed the recipe pretty explicitly.
First, I heated up the berries, until they were boiling.
Next, I added sugar and a little butter (apparently, it helps with the foam) and simmered it until it had somewhat reduced.
Then, I took it off the heat, added the balasamic vinegar, jarred it and put it in a water bath.
She suggests you scoop the berries out with a slotted spoon and jar those alone, saving the syrup separately. Even though I made a double batch (which supposedly yields 12 half pints), I would have only had about 4 half pint jars if I had followed her instructions. I suggest using the slotted spoon to fill the jar about 1/3 -1/2 full of berries and then the rest with syrup, before canning. I still only ended up with 9 1/2 jars, but I always seem to end up with fewer jars than a recipe suggests. Once cooled, I found the syrup gelled up fairly well. It really is more like a cross between a flavored syrup and a jam, as it doesn't have any added pectin or other thickeners, but it's also super tasty and an excellent way to capture the deliciousness of fresh spring berries.
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