I love strawberry jam. Over the past week I’ve made four batches and I’ll be at it again as soon as I can scrounge more jars. I’m finding it hard to keep up with the prolificacy of my strawberry patch and my local street market is virtually giving them away. You’d think that the rain we had during the spring would have produced watery fruit but I have yet to be disappointed.

Apart from guzzling them with cream and turning them through whipped cream with chunks of meringue to make Eton mess, I’ve made parfaits and fools, shakes and purées to spoon over ice cream and dilute into cordial, but strawberry gluts are traditionally destined for jam, the perfect reminder of summer during the cold winter months.

I like my strawberry jam with big chunks of fruit and a tang of acidity to offset the sweetness of the vast amounts of sugar required to preserve and help the jam to set. Strawberries are poor setters: choose unblemished fruit and on no account add water. The juice from a couple of lemons, plus a handful of redcurrants if you have them, give enough extra pectin to ensure setting. Most recipes tell you to boil the fruit and sugar until it wrinkles when a spoonful is cooled on a saucer. That has never happened when I’ve made strawberry jam, but my recent conversion to preserving sugar — rather than granulated — seems to solve all problems. Last year’s bramble jam, also made with preserving sugar, set perfectly. Its flavour now is as intense as it was in August last year, and it has no hint of mould, even though the opened jar isn’t in the fridge.

It’s really very easy to make strawberry jam but there are a few crucial rules. If you are picking strawberries, gather them with the leaves intact. That’s because they must be washed before they are hulled; once the “plug” is pulled the strawberry turns into a sponge, resulting in watery jam. And keep a beady eye on the jam at all stages.

I warm the sugar in the oven, believing that it melts into the strawberry juices faster, but it must be stirred constantly until dissolved to avoid burning. The final cooking, when the jam is boiled until setting point is reached, is the trickiest. You will need a large, heavy-bottomed pan, or a special preserving pan, because the jam rises fast and furiously. You will also need a very long-handled wooden spoon and a funnel for filling the jars. The jars must be sterilised first: I pop them in the oven for 15 minutes but a hot dishwasher cycle might be easier. The jam will set pretty firm after 24 hours.

Combining strawberries with rhubarb is hardly original but it is recommended, particularly for allotmenteers, like me, who have plenty of that too.

Strawberry jam
Makes 6x340g jars
Prep: 45 min
Cook: 45 min

Ingredients
1.6kg strawberries
2 large lemons
1.4kg preserving sugar

Method
Rinse and hull the strawberries. It’s rare, I find, for the core to pull out easily, so I use a small, sharp knife, running it around the base of the leaves in a pointed plug shape, turning the strawberry not the knife. It takes 20 minutes to do this quantity, so settle down comfortably. Leave small strawberries whole, halve medium and quarter large ones. Tip strawberries and lemon juice (plus a handful of redcurrants if you have them) into a preserving pan or very large, heavy-bottomed saucepan large enough to allow the jam to boil dramatically high. Simmer very gently, stirring occasionally, for about 20 min until the fruit is soft and totally immersed in juice.

Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 150C/gas mark 2. Measure the sugar into a mixing bowl and warm through in the oven for 8 min. Tip the warm sugar into the fruit (still over a medium-low heat) and stir constantly until you no longer hear the gritty noise of sugar catching in the pan.

Turn the heat as high as possible, allowing the frothy jam to boil high in the pan. Stir regularly, watching out for splashes and paying particular attention to the bottom and sides of the pan, stirring round, across and in a figure of eight, continuing for 10 min before dropping a teaspoonful of jam on a saucer. Allow to go cold, then push with the side of a finger to assess the crinkle factor, which is likely to be nil. Boil, stirring, for a further 5 min or so until the frothy bubbling submerges slightly. Test again — it will be less runny. Turn off the heat. Leave for 15 min, which ensures that the fruit settles evenly through the jam. Scrape any white foam to the side and out of the pan. Pour jam through a funnel into sterilised jars, filling right to the top. Cover immediately with waxed circles and lids. Cool, wipe away jam dribbles, label and store away from direct light.

Strawberry and rhubarb jam
Makes 4x350g jars
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 45 min

Ingredients
600g strawberries
600g rhubarb
900g preserving sugar
1 large lemon
1 juicing orange

Method
Rinse and hull the strawberries (see recipe above for details). Slice the rhubarb in 1cm chunks. Place both in a large, heavy-bottomed pan with the juice of the lemon, zest and juice of the orange. Simmer gently, cooking until the juices cover the rhubarb. Reduce the heat even lower and cook for a further 10 minutes or so, until the rhubarb is tender. Stir in the warmed sugar, stir until dissolved, increase the heat and proceed as above.

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