Strawberry jam, cordial and freezing: what to do with the punnets
Strawberries are the crop people most often over-pick, because the picking is easy and pleasant. They are also the crop that keeps worst: two days in the fridge and they are going. Deal with them the evening you get home.
Sort first. Perfect berries for eating, slightly soft for jam, bruised and very soft for cordial. Do not wash them until the moment you use them, and hull after washing rather than before, or they fill with water.
Strawberry jam without commercial pectin
Strawberries are low in pectin and acid, which is why strawberry jam so often fails to set. Lemon supplies both.
Ingredients: 1kg hulled strawberries, 800g sugar, juice of two lemons.
Method: Crush the berries roughly, layer with the sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, and leave for two to three hours or overnight in the fridge. This draws the juice and dissolves the sugar before any heat, which keeps the colour bright.
Bring to the boil in a wide heavy pan, skimming the foam. Boil hard for 20 to 30 minutes. Test on a cold saucer from the freezer: a blob should wrinkle when you push it. Jar hot, seal at once, and invert for two minutes.
A wide pan matters more than anything else here. Depth slows evaporation and you end up boiling out the flavour to get a set.
Strawberry cordial from the soft ones
Ingredients: 1kg soft strawberries, 400g sugar, juice of one lemon, 200ml water.
Method: Simmer the fruit and water for 10 minutes until collapsed. Strain through a cloth, without pressing, if you want it clear; press if you do not mind it cloudy and want the yield. Return the juice to the pan with the sugar and lemon, boil for 5 minutes, and bottle hot. Keeps a month in the fridge, or freeze in portions.
Freezing strawberries so they are still usable
Hull, halve the large ones, spread cut side down on a lined tray, freeze hard, then bag. They will never be firm again, but tray-frozen halves hold their shape in a crumble or a smoothie, while berries bagged wet freeze into a solid pink brick.
If you know they are destined for jam, freeze them already crushed with their sugar. It saves a step in a busy season and the jam is no worse for it.
Updated 10 September 2026