Strawberry Jam without Pectin

I’m often told how lucky we are to be staying so near to the "land of Strawberries" ! 

Also called as Mahableshwar. It’s a small hill station in Maharashtra and twice in a year it has massive strawberry production.

We were meaning to take a trip for so long that it took us almost over an year and many failed (oversleeping) events to make it happen.

We fought against all sleeping gods and ran from the house on one Sunday, picking sleepy Ozzy in her night suit.There had to be some sort of compromise made to make it there and enjoy the weather & strawberries.

The drive turned out to be amazing. Clouds were pleasing us all along the way and I kept myself busy humming Pink Floyd and clicking pictures from my phone and then from Sid’s because he has a better phone camera J

We returned the same day after most satisfying meal from Mapro garden and the oh so good  strawberry with cream.

We loaded back kilos and kilos of strawberries of which I had to hide a stack to make this awesome jam. It has no pectin and came out beautiful. I wish I knew if there was anything natural to increase the shelf life little longer.

The recipe was sourced from The Kitchn

Recipe follows:

1 Kg Strawberries (approx 4 cups) Chopped
1/4 Cup Sugar (more if required)
1 Lemon Juice
A pinch of Salt

Procedure:

Keep few spoons in the freezer to chill. We'll be using then later.
Chop strawberries into large chunks discarding any cores and bruised areas.

Put strawberries, sugar and salt in a large pot on medium flame. Add lemon juice and drop lemon rinds into the pot. 

Mash the strawberries little to reach the chunky consistency / texture. (I used potato masher). Bring the mixture to boil stirring frequently. 

Check when the bubbles become smaller and thicker. It would take about 7 - 10 minutes to reach there.
Bring out a spoon and drop few drops and wait for a minute to run you finger through. It it leaves a path its done. If it comes together, give it a few more minute of boiling. Check again.

To sterilize jars:

Wash the jars and preheat the oven to 160 degree C. Keep the jars in oven for about 20 minutes.
Pour hot jam in hot jars. Do Not pour hot in cold jars. The glass will shatter. Seal jars when they both reach room temperature.

The jam can stay up for 3-4 weeks - refrigerated.