Strawberry Elderflower Jam
Three ingredients cooked down at camp until it sets on a spoon. Sugar does the preserving.
- calories
- 190
- weight
- 2.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 76
- protein
- 0 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Snack
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Day one only
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Strawberries | 2 lb | hulled and halved; small berries hold shape better |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 2 cups | |
| Elderflower heads | 6 heads | shaken clean, dry, no washing; thick stems trimmed off |
| Lemon | 1 | juice plus a strip of peel |
Method
- Toss the berries with the sugar and the lemon juice in the pot. Leave it off the heat for an hour if you have it. The sugar pulls juice out and you start with liquid instead of scorching fruit.
- Set the pot over a low fire or a stove turned down. Stir until the sugar is gone, then bring it to a slow boil.
- Skim the pink foam off the top as it rises. Cook 30 to 40 minutes, stirring often. Fruit jam sticks the second you stop paying attention.
- Tie the elderflower heads in a square of cheesecloth and drop the bundle in for the last 10 minutes with the lemon peel. Any longer and the flowers turn bitter.
- Test it: a spoonful on a cold plate or a metal cup lid should wrinkle when you push it. If it runs, keep going.
- Pull the flower bundle and the peel. Jar it hot, lids on, and let it cool. Eat it within a few days out of a cooler, or process the jars at home.
Jam is a ratio problem. Strawberries are low in pectin and high in water, so the only things holding this together are sugar, acid, and time over heat. The lemon supplies the acid that lets the little pectin there is actually set, and it keeps the color from going brown.
Elderflower is added at the end on purpose. The aromatics are volatile and boil away, so ten minutes in a cheesecloth bundle gets the muscat smell into the jam without the green, bitter taste that comes from cooking stems. Cook this in camp only where you have a real pot and a cooler; hot sugar and a wobbly stove is a burn waiting to happen.
Packing
This is a car-camp project, not a pack-in one. Bring the pot, a long spoon, cheesecloth and string, and clean jars in a milk crate. Buy the berries near the trailhead and pick the elderflower the morning you cook.
Variations
- No elderflower in season: a split vanilla bean for the last ten minutes does a similar job.
- Half the sugar makes a loose sauce for pancakes instead of a jam. It will not keep.
https://savoriurbane.com/dulceata-de-capsune-cu-flori-de-soc-si-lamaie-reteta-bunicii-mele-din-arad