Recipes Collection

So. I have made three batches of strawberry jam in the last couple of weeks and they have all set. Beautifully. This is a very new experience for me; my strawberry jam has traditionally been on the runny side. The reason is that I bought and tried Bernardins No Sugar Needed Pectin.

Im feeling a bit strange about this, because I am not usually very inclined to write about the products of mega-gigantico international corporations. Au contraire.  But this is the first time ever that I have used pectin and had it work. Moreover, Ive made a batch of each of three suggested variations, and they all worked equally well.

While this is "no sugar needed" pectin, you can use sugar if you want. My first batch was made as they suggest, with 4 cups strawberries, 1 cup fruit juice and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Compare this to regular jam recipes - the sugar used is way lower. Next, I made a batch with Splenda for my dad, the sweet-toothed diabetic. Finally I made a batch with no sugar, just the strawberries and fruit juice, for my mom, who is on a low-sugar diet and who isnt quite so inclined to sweets. I used a mixture of lime juice and water for my fruit juice in the first batch, and grape juice for the other two batches. They all set up equally well.

My measurement of strawberries got bigger and bigger with each batch I made; I should really concede that the last batch had a good solid 5 cups of strawberries in it. Worked fine. This really seems to be pretty fool-proof stuff.

The ingredients are simple enough; dextrose (a sugar), fruit pectin, citric acid, and calcium ascorbate (a form of vitamin C. No problems there.

I didnt skim my jam, which jam recipes have always said to do. Mine always took so long to set up (assuming it did) that any foam had lots of time to settle out before the jam set. Not this time. The foam managed to make it about two-thirds up the jar before it was caught and set, so my jam looks a little funny. Ho hum. I can live with that.

Ive had a number of people recommend Pomona pectin to me, but the trouble is I live in the sticks. Its the products of mega-gigantic international corporations, or local farmers, with nothing in between. In short, I cant get it. Therefore, I really dont know how well it would compare.

"Whoa", said Mr. Ferdzy. "This is good." 

I do always like to hear that. I kind of liked it myself, I must say. Still, I wish I had thought to add some more whole or sliced strawberries to the salad, because I think that would have made it even better, although a simple combination of lettuces from our garden along with a few of our first snowpeas and radishes was just fine. Theres some left over, so I will have a chance to try it again.

You could omit the poppy seeds if you dont care for them, but anything made of raw puréed strawberries is going to have a little seedy thing going on; I figured I might as well make it official.

6 to 8 servings
15 minutes prep time


1 cup fresh hulled strawberries
1/4 cup sunflower or nut (almond or hazelnut) oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
a good grind of black pepper
the juice of 1 small lime

Wash and hull the strawberries, and put them in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add the remaining ingredients, and process until smoothly blended. Pour it into an attractive serving container, using a spatula to scrape it all out. Apply it ad lib to the green salad of your choice... eat... enjoy! Thats all there is to it.