Created and contributed by Carey Nash, Strawberry-Jalapeno Jam is a low-sugar jam made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener. Carey, who also created Merry Mulled Merlot Jam, says: “Late summer is great here in Southern California because the strawberries are super sweet while they’re on their way out of season, and the peppers are just starting to hit their early peaks!“I’ve always made my pepper jam with lemon juice, as opposed to vinegar, mostly because that was how the first recipe I used was written, but also because there’s no shortage of lemons here, so I always have plenty of frozen juice in the freezer. After some research, it seemed lemon juice and vinegar act/react the same for pepper jam; and people use equal parts acid to pepper in recipes across the board. Knowing that the original Pomona’s recipe calls for vinegar, I used a mix.”
Servings 6 cups
Ingredients
- 1½ cups chopped strawberries about 1 pint
- 1 cup chopped sweet red peppers about 3/4 lb or 3 medium bells
- ½ to ¾ cup chopped jalapenos depending on how hot you like it (about 12-15 small peppers)
- 1½ cups lemon juice bottled
- ½ cup white vinegar 5%
- 1½ cups sugar
- 3 teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- 3 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin mixed with sweetener
Instructions
- Before you begin, prepare calcium water.To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well.Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Wash jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in canner, fill canner 2/3 full with water, bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and keep jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small saucepan; cover and heat to a low boil. Turn off heat and keep lids in hot water until ready to use.
- While you prepare your jars, wash, finely chop, and measure the strawberries and the peppers. Remove stems, seeds, and white membranes from the peppers before chopping. Use latex gloves when handling the jalapenos. (I used a food processor to chop the peppers and berries so the measurements listed are exact.)
- Put measured berries and peppers in the pot along with the lemon juice and vinegar. Slowly bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Simmer covered for 5 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, thoroughly stir pectin powder into sugar and set aside.
- After simmering for the 5 minutes, add the calcium water to the jam pot and stir well. Bring the jam to a good boil, then stir in the sugar-pectin mix.
- Stir vigorously for 1 minute then boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
- Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 minutes (add 1 minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
Ann
Can Allulose. be used as the sweetener this recipe?
Shelby Collings
Yes, you may use any alternative sweetener in any of our recipes.
Pam LaRoche
I made the recipe exactly as stated using 3/4 C jalapeños but was disappointed with my results. The jam is too sweet with very little jalapeño flavor. I needed only 2 large jalapeños finely chopped to equal the 3/4 cups. Is it possible that the larger the pepper, the less intense the flavor? Can I dump the set jam from the jars back into the pot & add either crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper to it then recan it? Thanks.
Shelby Collings
Hello Pam,
Yes the intensity of peppers varies. You are welcome to recook your batch of jam, add up to 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes, then reprocess your jars.
Carole Swartz
Can I use flaked habaneros instead of an actual pepper? I bought a jar of wonderful strawberry habanero jam at a farmers market and the ingredients were strawberries, sugar, vinegar and habanero flakes.
Shelby Collings
You sure can! We would recommend omitting the jalapeno peppers, increasing the strawberries by 1/2 cup and adding up to 1 teaspoon of habanero flakes.
Norma Tumberg
Is this correct…the ratio of fruits to the lemon juice and vinegar? I had to double the sugar and add strawberry flavor. The liquid seems so high. Thank you
Shelby Collings
Yes, this is correct. Happy jamming!
Buttermilk
Hello! I want to make a strawberry pepper jelly (not jam) can I stain the fit like making jelly? What other changes do I need to make? Thank you so much!
Shelby Collings
You sure can! We would recommend following our Peach Jalapeno Jelly recipe, HERE and simply substituting the peaches for strawberries.
Happy jamming!
Allyson Spindler
Is like to make a fig pepper jam. Would this recipe work for me to substitute the fig for the strawberries?
Shelby Collings
Hello Allyson,
You sure can! We do recommend adding 1/2 cup water to soften the figs. You will also need to increase the lemon juice by an additional 1/4 cup.
Sue
Oh my gosh this is so good! I made a double batch with Allulose, I used all Jalapenos instead of sweet reds & it’s perfect! I would put a tiny bit more pectin in it next time, it’s a bit loose, but still set. The perfect amount of spice for us (we like spicy). The Allulose kept the bright red color of the strawberries, it’s a beautiful jam.
Gabriela
Hello, is it possible to completely replace sugar with a different plant based sweetener (such as Erythritiol) and still be safe to can?
Shelby Collings
Hello Gabriela,
You sure can! We recommend using the lowest recommended amount, and then adding more should you desire just before filling your jars.
Renee
Can I omit the calcium water?
Shelby Collings
We do not suggest that, as the calcium is what tells the pectin to active/jell.
Angela
I made this using pineapple instead of strawberries and a monk fruit erythritol blend for sugar, we loved it. I did keep my jalapeños at the high end, just a little over 3/4 of a cup and it still wasn’t to spicy. Such a great recipe, thank you!
Susan Foster
Can you blend the strawberries and peppers so its more smooth rather than chunky?
Shelby Collings
Absolutely!
Bill G
I made this using my home-grown red Cayenne peppers instead of the jalapeños and used the “1 & 1/2 cup chopped strawberries” and same with the peppers in my recipe, but I wanted the peices smaller so I then blended them up and proceeded wit the recipe very carefully.. I jarred them and water-bathed them, and was so excited!
Until they didn’t set and were just syrup, not jam (despite how good it tasted!)
So I went to Pomona’s “My jelly didn’t set link and found out that I needed to measure the blended up strawberries, not the “Chopped” strawberries.
I chopped the same amount and blended them up roughly, and found it was only HALF the volume needed, so I added the correct amount of the blended strawberries, re-boiled, and IT WAS PERFECT!!
Just to make sure, and since I had all the jam-making stuff out, I whipped up another batch the right way and it set perfectly once again, thanks Pomona’s!!
Shelby Collings
Great job Bill! Happy jamming 😊
Cindy
Do you have to use both the lemon juice and ACV in this recipe? Can I just use lemon juice? Also if I omit the ACV do I have to increase the lemon juice? Thank You!
Shelby Collings
Hello Cindy,
Great questions! You do not have to use both lemon juice and ACV, though if you do choose to omit one, that measurement will need to be replace with another acid…(acid options: lemon juice, lime juice, ACV, white vinegar, etc. (we recommend all bottled or 5% acidity). For this recipe, 2 cups of acidic liquid is needed for your jam to be safe for water-bath canning and shelf storage.
Happy jamming!
Alfred Young
Is it possible to completely remove the sweet peppers from this recipe?
Shelby Collings
You sure can! Either substitute more strawberries or more jalapeños or both…as long as the measurement does not change.
Marika
Would it be possible to use kiwi instead of strawberry? And if so, could one then eliminate the red peppers or is it used as an additional sweetener.
Shelby Collings
Hello Marika,
Great question! You can certainly replace the strawberries with Kiwi in this recipe! If you would like to replace the red peppers, you certainly may. We would recommend that you use 2 1/2 cups mashed kiwi and 1 cup chopped jalapeños. Happy jamming!
Marika
Thank you Shelby, that really helps! But brings me to another question about pectin … is one has 1/2 cups of fruit, do you then up the pectin amount to the next full cup measurement? For example, round up the 2.5 cups to 3 cups for the pectin formula.
Shelby Collings
The over all fruit/juice/vegetable measurement does not change, so the pectin and calcium water measurements will stay the same.
Happy jamming!
RedBlueSpice
Can I use mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, & blackberries) in place of the strawberries?
Shelby Collings
Hey there,
Yes, that should be just fine, as long as you use the same measurement as the strawberries.
Happy jamming!