Blog

This customizable, make it your way, strawberry jam canning recipe is fast and easy, and so fun to make with a group. Select your add-in flavors, and follow the easy recipe below.

This post may contain affiliate links.

Strawberry jam is a fast and fun recipe that a beginner can make and this recipe explains how you can round up a selection (or just a few) of optional add ins to add just before canning to customize your jam and make it your own.

One way to tell which jar is which is to use these fun, colored lids. You’ll know that the balsamic flavored jam has the red lid, and the one with minced jalapeño has a green lid.

If you came to this post for a recipe, and now you’re not so sure because this is a canning recipe, don’t worry! You can sign up for the Free Canning Basics Course and get a few easy lessons in your inbox!

This customizable strawberry jam is easy to make especially in wide mouth half pint jars. You’ll have a perfect serving of specially flavored jam to give or keep and the wide mouth makes the addition of the flavoring easy.

This would be a fun recipe to make with a group (see this post for a recipe for canning for a party!)

Customizable Strawberry Jam Canning Recipe

Download and print the Customizable Strawberry Jam Canning Recipe for free here!

You will need 
10 cups strawberries, washed and chopped
7 cups of sugar
2 lemons, squeezed
2 boxes  liquid pectin
Customize with an optional add in- 1 teaspoon each per 1 cup/half pint jar
–vanilla paste or extract
–rose water
–orange flower water
-finely minced jalapeno, seeds removed
–dried or fresh lavender
-lemon or orange zest
-teaspoon balsamic vinegar 

1. Prepare your water bath canning pot or your steam canner. Fill the water bath canning pot with water, add 7-8 half pint jars, and bring to a boil OR fill the steam canner to fill line and turn on low with the half pint jars nearby on a towel-covered countertop. 

2. Combine strawberries and lemon juice. Simmer together in a preserving pan (a heavy bottomed, wide pan) and stir occasionally for 15 minutes. 

3. Optional: Remove from heat and ladle into a food mill. Process jam through for a super smooth jam.

4.Return strawberries to a boil, add sugar, and whisk in pectin quickly.

5.Ladle into jars one at a time, adding 1 teaspoon of your optional add-in flavoring. Stir with a toothpick or spoon to quickly incorporate.

6. Apply lids and rings, and either submerge into the boiling water of the boiling water bath with a jar lifter  OR set gently on the rack of the steam canner. 

7.Process for 10 minutes PLUS 5 minutes for every 1000 ft above sea level. Remove from heat, rest jars carefully on towel covered countertop. Label cooled jars and store for up to 1 year. Yields 10 half pint jars.

Love strawberries? You can get my best strawberry canning recipes in one ebook. Check it out here!

If you want to know the absolute best way to get started canning, this post will tell you the fastest, easiest, and best way. Read on for the tools, tips, and tricks from a busy mom who understands what it is like to not have enough hours in the day.

This post contains affiliate links.

Most people think of canning and imagine a few specific things. They imagine the huge, speckled black pot with steam rolling from the top, and they imagine it taking hours and hours.

Truly, those are THE biggest obstacles to YOU starting canning, aren’t they? You don’t want to clutter your kitchen up with a ton of gear (didn’t your grandma have an attic full of stuff?) and you don’t have hours and hours to devote to a new hobby.

BUT you are reading this because the idea of canning is intriguing to you. You want to can the recipes that your mom or grandma made, or you want to gut out allergens for your family, or you want to make more food yourself, and the cooked-in-advance part of canning sounds amazing…you want to learn how, but it has to fit into your busy life and stuffed kitchen.

Steam canning is the answer to all of the above and more.

It is the FASTEST way to can. It cuts 25 minutes off each batch. 25 minutes saved is great, but you really  save time with each subsequent batch. Suddenly you aren’t canning all afternoon. You’ve canned several batches in 90 minutes, or just one in under 30.

Read this post for more detailed info on steam canning here.

I’m pretty darn good at a few things.

I don’t do anything slowly.

I am great at making friends.

I’ve made friends (truly, this is not a paid sponsorship) with Amy of Victorio Kitchen Products, the maker of the pot that allows for the fastest canning possible. She and I are birds of the same feather. We were on the phone and I said to Amy, in an offhand way,

“It would be awesome if your funnel and jar lifter came in the same box as the steam canner because then a beginner wouldn’t have to get anything else to start…”

And then in a few days, Amy emailed me the link to Victorio’s Steam Canner Bundle.

I’m a squeal with excitement girl, and let me tell you…I definitely squealed with excitement.

Amy at Victorio (a husband and wife team in Orem, Utah) put together in ONE box the absolute best way for you to get started with canning. They are so passionate about helping newbies get started, (ahem, just like me!) that they are making the very affordable Victorio Steam Canner Bundle available exclusively for you readers.

Did I mention it is cheaper than getting it on Amazon?!

You get free shipping, too.

You’ll need NO other tools to get started. Rustle up your jars and you’re all set!

Other than squeal with excitement, here’s what I’m offering.

For purchasers of the Victorio Steam Canner Bundle, if you email me a screenshot or forward of your purchase confirmation, I’ll email you the Steam Canning For Beginners Ebook for free.

To celebrate our new friendship and the launch of the Bundle, Amy at Victorio and I have put together a Giveaway. It’s a fun one because there’s tons of opportunity to increase your chances of winning by sharing (Do it! It’s a single click- so simple!)

The lucky winner of the Giveaway will win:

The Steam Canner Bundle – a steam canner, funnel and jar lifter– everything you’d need!

The Steam Canning Workshop (my video course that teaches a beginner how to use and maximize their steam canner, STEP BY STEP)

The Steam Canning for Beginners Ebook to read while you’re on the treadmill or in bed at night

Enter to win this amazing prize here!

If you want to see me unbox this amazing bundle, watch here!

If you want to check out this steam canning stuff, but you’re not ready to dive in just yet, check out the Steam Canning for Beginners Ebook. Its affordable & low-commitment; it’s like taking steam canning out for coffee. You’re just getting to know it a little bit better!

I’ve had a lot of readers express that they think that steam canning is next level, harder, 2.0, or otherwise more difficult than traditional water bath canning and that simply isn’t so. I’m here to tell you that canning is a piece of cake in a steam canner and in many ways, much easier than traditional water bath canning. Here are my best steam canning resources to save you tons of time canning. Read on for the best way to get the steam canning gear you need, steam canning blog posts, a steam canning ebook, YouTube videos about steam canning, my Steam Canning Workshop, and more.

This post contains affiliate links.

6 Steam Canning Resources

Steam Canning For Beginners

The Steam Canning for Beginners ebook will explain many of the considerations you’ll encounter, such as: how to maximize the steam canner’s efficiency, how to choose recipes that make the most of your steam canner, how to know you’re doing it right, what to do if your processing time is over 45 minutes, who steam canners are best for (almost everyone!), and more.

How to Maximize Your Steam Canning Time to Can Faster

This post will share with you some valuable tips for maximizing a steam canner by choosing recipes that are particularly well suited to steam canners, and which to skip.

The Steam Canning Fact Sheet & Equipment List is FREE, and will help you DIVE IN! It’s a beautiful PDF that you can print or look at on your phone and will clarify what steam canning is, and is not, easily!

Differences Between Water Bath Canning and Steam Canning

This video will explain in detail the differences between using a water bath canner and a steam canner and will show you how a steam canner can save 30 minutes or more per batch, weighs just a quarter of a full-size traditional canner, and are ideal for a beginner. Read on, Wildflowers!

What Is A Steam Canner

This post will explain what a steam canner is, the pieces that come with it, how it saves time, the types of recipes that maximize a steam canner’s efficiency, how much water they use (hardly any!) who a steam canner is best for, and why you’ll want to try one yourself!

Why A Pressure Canner is NOT a Steam Canner

This post will explain the differences between a pressure canner and a steam canner, and why you’ll definitely want to learn how to use a steam canner. Watch the video below, Wildflowers!

29 Reasons You Should Be Using A Steam Canner

This post will explain the reasons why a steam canner is the best thing to happen to the preserving world since Napoleon offered a reward to anyone who could preserve food to feed his soldiers afield. Read on for the list, Wildflowers!

Are you ready to can the fastest way possible? In the Steam Canning Workshop, I SHOW you, STEP BY STEP, how to master steam canning in crystal clear videos that make you feel like we are hanging out canning together.

No matter if you are an experienced water bath canner, or if you’ve never canned anything, the Steam Canning Workshop will transform you into a confident, lightening-fast canner.

Start Steam Canning with This Bundle

Now that you have printed off the equipment list, you can see you need the Steam Canner Bundle from Victorio Kitchen products. In this bundle, you get the steam canner, the funnel, and the jar lifter, all in ONE BOX. You get FREE SHIPPING, and it’s cheaper than on Amazon.