Easy Strawberry Jam (No Pectin)

If you've never made strawberry jam before, this Old Fashioned Strawberry Jam Recipe without pectin is the one you want to start with. It's easily made using fresh strawberries and pantry staples, no pectin needed!

It cooks down to a thick sweet jam that's glossy with deep strawberry flavor that creates that 'summer in a jar' type of flavor. Loaded with real strawberry, it's everything a homemade jam should be.

As a chef I've made everything from strawberry compote to preserves and restaurant sized batches of jarred jams with pectin but this is the recipe I always come back to every summer. It's simple, packed with flavor, and uses ingredients I almost always have on hand.

Jump to:

• A Glance At Old Fashioned Strawberry Jam Recipe
• Why You'll Love This Recipe
• Why Not Using Pectin Works
• Recipe Ingredients
• What You'll See During The Cooking Process
• Common Mistakes
• Variations
• How To Make Easy Strawberry Jam (No Pectin)
• Chef's Note
• Strawberry Jam (no pectin) Troubleshooting Chart
• Easy Strawberry Jam (No Pectin) FAQs
• Strawberry Recipes You'll Love
• 📖Recipe
• The Best Strawberry Jam Recipe

Recipe Ingredients

• Strawberries - Using ripe fragrant berries will lend itself to a sweeter and bolder flavor while using slightly underripe berries will allow the strawberry jam to thicken faster.
• Granulated Sugar - Don't lessen the amount of sugar, it helps the thickening process.
• Brown Sugar - Using a bit of brown sugar will add to the depth of flavor with a hint of molasses flavor that can't be detected but adds a 'wow, what is this' effect.
• Lemon Juice - Use fresh squeezed lemon juice, not lemon juice from concentrate. Fresh lemon juice gives a different flavor than bottled lemon juice and can greatly effect the outcome of the recipe. This goes for cooking recipes and baking recipes such as lemon blueberry cheesecake.

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

What You'll See During The Cooking Process

There will be a few stages during the quick cooking process of strawberry jam without pectin. Here's what you'll see along the way.

• Stage 1: Bright berries with clumpy wet sugar that turns into a foamy residue.
• Stage 2: Large bubbles when strawberry jam begins to simmer. This means the mixture is very loose.
• Stage 3: Smaller bubbles, dime size, and a darker color. Smaller bubbles = thicker liquid.
• Stage 4: Nappe texture = when the jam coats the back of the spoon.

Common Mistakes

Why is my jam burnt on the bottom?

Scorching your jam is a common mistake that happens to high sugar sauces when you don't scrape the bottom of the pot as you're stirring like strawberry jam or orange cranberry sauce. It can also occur if you're not stirring frequently enough.

We don't want to turn the heat down because this is a quick strawberry jam recipe, right? High heat means frequent stirring and scraping with a rubber spatula, every 20-30 seconds so the strawberry jam doesn't scorch to the bottom of the pan.

Why didn't my jam thicken?

Your jam didn't thicken for one of the following reasons:

• You didn't cook it long enough or at a high enough temperature.
• Your berries were overripe causing them to contain extra liquid and a lower level of pectin.
• You may have measured the amount of sugar or berries incorrectly.

In any of these cases, either of the following solutions will work:

• Cook strawberry jam longer while frequently stirring and scrapping of the bottom.
• Use a slurry to thicken jam. 2 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoon cold water until dissolved and smooth. Whisk slurry into jam mixture while it's boiling.

Why is there foam on top of my strawberry jam?

This is perfectly normal. You can skim it off the top if you'd like or stir it in. It will not cause any harm.

Chef's Note

• Don't watch the clock, watch the jam. After years of making this easy strawberry jam recipe, I've learned how to tell when the jam is done just by looking at it. Depending on the type and ripeness of strawberries, some batches can take 20 minutes while some can take up to 35 minutes. Rather than watching the clock, I stick to what I see. The jam should coat the back of a spoon, what chefs call nappe, and have smaller bubbles while simmering when it's becoming thick enough, similar to a sauce like coq au vin blanc coating the back of the spoon.
• When testing this jam recipe I've noticed using strawberries at their ripest gives a mind-blowing deep strawberry flavor to the jam but it also adds more liquid. The extra liquid will require a longer cooking time to achieve the thickness desired. Slightly underripe strawberries contain higher amounts of pectin which will naturally thicken the jam more quickly than fully ripe berries. So, it's a toss up on what your personal preference is.
• Use a pan with wide surface area. The wider the surface area, the quicker the jam cooks!
• If you have particularly large strawberries, cut them into quarters rather than halves.