Easy No Pectin Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

This easy no pectin strawberry rhubarb jam is the perfect jam to make if you’re brand new to canning. For one, you don’t need to buy any special equipment beyond a few jam jars and jar lids and bands unless you want to. Also, since it’s a small batch, you won’t have a ton of jam to eat or give away for months upon months. We love jam here at Sunny Side Up, and strawberry rhubarb is my very favorite. However, we don’t eat much of it, so I almost always make small batches. This recipe yields approximately 4 jam jars worth of strawberry rhubarb yumminess!

The Equipment You’ll Need

Again, don’t feel like you have to run out and buy all the equipment listed below. Here’s a link that shows you how to make your own rack, jar lifter, and funnel from items you very likely already have. How’s that for being industrious?

• Small jam jars
• Canning lids and bands, regular not wide-mouth
• Pot deep enough for water to cover the top of your jars by at least an inch or two
• Jar lifter
• Funnel
• Rack for the bottom of your canning pot

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I bought this inexpensive canning accessories kit a few years ago and I use it all the time. If you try canning and you enjoy the process, it’s a small investment to make. However, here are some hacks you can utilize to replace the rack, funnel, and jar lifter. I admit that I don’t have an official canning pot yet. I’ve been using this stockpot for several years, even for making large jars of my fresh and simple tomato sauce. I just put the rack from my Instant Pot in the bottom of the pot and I’m good to go. You do need a rack to allow the water to circulate under your jars and to prevent your jars from breaking, though. Most glass, even sturdy glass used for canning, can break from the heat of the metal coming into direct contact with it. Can you imagine that mess?

Easy No Pectin Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Ingredients

• 5 cups of rhubarb (stalk only, in 1/2″ dice)
• 2 cups of strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon bottled or fresh lemon juice

That’s it! Easy, right? A few things about the ingredients:

• Rhubarb leaves are poisonous so make sure you remove them. I like to make fresh cuts at the end of each stalk for the freshest taste.
• Here in northwest Ohio, we have a very short window of time to pick or buy homegrown strawberries. Try small and local grocery stores or farmer’s markets to hunt them down, and try your best to find organically grown. Homegrown strawberries are usually half the size of the gigantic, emaciated ones you buy at big box grocery stores. Homegrown strawberries are a very bright, glossy red and they’re already super sweet. They’re the best! Regular strawberries will work too in a pinch, but they won’t be as sweet as their homegrown counterparts.

• I have only used granulated sugar for this recipe. I can’t advocate for honey or coconut sugar since I haven’t tried either of those as sugar substitutes yet.
• The lemon juice is what helps make sweet jams made with berries gel and set. You can use fresh or bottled, but you must use it regardless. Don’t skip it or you’ll have runny jam that’s more like syrup!

How to Make Easy No Pectin Strawberry Rhubarb

• Wash and sterilize 4 jam jars, lids, and bands. I run my jars through the dishwasher and boil my lids and bands in water in a saucepan for 10 minutes. NOTE: Most canning lids are single-use, so make sure you have new ones. Happily, bands and jars are reusable.

• Place your sterilized jars, bands, and lids on a clean and dry dishtowel near your stovetop.
• Chop your rhubarb stalks into pieces of about 1″ and add them to a large saucepan.

• Hull and halve two cups of fresh homegrown strawberries and add them to the saucepan with the diced rhubarb.

• Add 2 1/4 cups of granulated sugar to the rhubarb and berries in the saucepan.

• Now add a tablespoon of fresh or bottled lemon juice.
• Stir the four ingredients together so the sugar is thoroughly coating the rhubarb and strawberries.
• On your stovetop, heat the sugary mixture on medium heat until the sugar completely dissolves and it begins to boil.

Processing Jam

• Meanwhile, place the rack in your stockpot and fill your stockpot with enough water to cover your jam jars with at least 1″ of water. Bring the water to a boil.
• Reduce the heat of your jam mixture to medium-low and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon every few minutes. It should still be boiling but not boiling over, Within 45 minutes to an hour, your jam should be broken down into a liquid or with just a few chunks of fruit still in it.
• Remove the jam from heat and place the funnel in a small prepared jam jar.
• Carefully pour the jam into the jars so there’s about a 1/2″ of space in the top of each jar.
• Wipe your jar clean of any spilled jam and then add the lid and band to each jar. Don’t over-tighten the band.
• With your jar lifter, carefully lower each jar into the stockpot of boiling water, making sure the water covers the jars by at least one inch.
• Cover your stockpot and set your timer for 10 minutes.
• With the jar lifter, carefully remove the processed jars from the boiling water and place them on your clean towel. Within a few minutes, the lids should make a popping noise to let you know the lids are sealed. Let the jars completely cool for 24 hours before storing.

Jam Troubleshooting

This easy no pectin strawberry rhubarb jam should set up just fine, but don’t try to shortcut the cooking time. When you opt to make jam with no pectin, it takes longer to get to that all-important gel stage. If you follow the directions closely, you shouldn’t have any issues with the jam not setting or the lids not sealing. If you do end up with a lid that doesn’t seal, don’t despair. Put that jar of jam in the fridge and enjoy it within the next two weeks.

Pectin or No Pectin?

There are pros and cons to pectin, and I personally think pectin is looked upon a tad unfairly. Pectin blocks the body’s absorption of beta-carotene, vitamin A. However, that being said, unless you eat jam made with pectin every single day, it shouldn’t be a cause for concern. You should avoid pectin if you’re taking certain heart medication, though.

On the flip side, using pectin allows the jam to cook and gel much faster, resulting in a more vibrantly colored jam, as well as more of it. In addition, there are some jams that just won’t set up that well without pectin, even with crazy cooking times and lemon juice added. I personally would not make lots of no pectin jam since I don’t want to spend an entire day tied to my stovetop. For small-batch jams, though, an hour is perfectly fine!

I can’t wait to spoon some of this delicious jam on some wholegrain English muffins with some mixed nut butter. Here’s to canning some jam this summer! What’s your favorite jam? Do you have a favorite recipe? I’d love to hear about it!