Strawberry Preserves

You only need three ingredients to make this delightful strawberry preserves recipe: two pounds of strawberries, granulated sugar, and lemon juice. This allows the flavor of the berries to really shine and yields a wonderful texture that’s right at home on toast, yogurt, and more. Another bonus: Making jam or preserves is a great way to use up less than perfect fruit, keeping it from going to waste. This recipe can be doubled or tripled to make a larger batch of jam. If you want the preserves to last longer than three weeks in the refrigerator, you'll need to process the jars in a hot water bath—don’t fret, we’ve got instructions for that, too.

Preserves vs. Jam vs. Jelly

Although these three sweet condiments are made primarily with fruit and sugar, they differ when it comes to texture and consistency.

Preserves: The chunkiest of the bunch, preserves are made with whole or large pieces of fruit aren't mashed, crushed, or blended in any way. They're best for spooning onto foods like biscuits, waffles, and ice cream.

Jelly: Made with the strained juice from mashed fruit, jelly has the smoothest, most spreadable consistency and doesn't contain any visible chunks of fruit. It's typically used for sandwiches, toast, or as a glaze for savory dishes and fruit tarts.

Jam: Somewhere between jelly and preserves is jam. It is made with mashed fruit and still has some texture but is less chunky than preserves. Use it on sandwiches, in thumbprint cookies, on scones, or pretty much anywhere you might use jelly or preserves.

3 Tips for Homemade Strawberry Preserves

Use ripe (but not overripe) fruit: When choosing strawberries for this recipe, it's important to use fruit that's ripe (or even slightly underripe) but not past its prime. That's because overripe fruit contains less pectin than ripe or underripe fruit, which can affect the jam's ability to set up. Making preserves is a great opportunity to use up less-than-stellar looking berries, too, so don't hesitate to toss in strawberries that may not be fit for eating out of hand.

Have patience: Making jam is a process and one that you certainly don't want to rush. After bringing it to a boil, continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches the target temperature (this will take 15 to 20 minutes). To keep the jam from scorching and allow it cook at the right pace, leave the heat at medium and resist the urge to crank it up too high to speed up the cook time.

Use a thermometer: While there are a few different ways to check the doneness of jams, jellies, and preserves, we strongly recommend using a candy or instant-read thermometer—especially for recipes that don't call for added pectin, like this one. The preserves are cooked enough to set up when the temperature reaches 220 degrees Fahrenheit.