I’ve received a number of questions about canning sweet spreads lately. One that always pops up is: do I have to waterbath can it?

The answer is no. You can make any kind of jam/preserves/etc. without lugging out your big-ass stockpot/canner pot. Just don’t make a bunch of it because you’ll need to eat it up lickity split (within 3-4 weeks).

Small-batches of jam are cool because:

1. Who buys a jar of jam at the store or farmers’ market to stash away indefinitely in the pantry? Um, no one I know.

2. Rarely do urbanites have enough fruit to warrant a canner pot canning session. Good (translate: anything you want to eat) fruit is expensive! I dished out $10.16 for two quart-sized baskets yesterday, and that was a steal (yaay food co-op!)

3. You don’t double cook the fruit (once in the pot on the stove to reach a gel, and then again in the canner pot to kill any spoilers in preparation for shelf storage), hence your fruit keeps more of its integrity.

No-can Strawberry Jam Recipe

modified from Linda Ziedrich and David Lebovitz

Yield 1 pint

Zee goods:

1 lb of hulled, stemmed strawberries (which means you need a quart or two pints of whole strawberries from the farmers’ market.) My quart o’ berries weighed in at ~1.75 lbs at my co-op. And I used all but a few.

1 lemon, which yields 2 Tbs strained lemon juice

1 cup sugar

zest of half your lemon

Zee method:

1. Prepare your fruit. Slice off stem portion. Hull them by taking a paring or steak knife and carving out the white inner cavities of the fruits. Slice stemmed, hulled fruit as thinly as you wish. I’m a sucker for a chunkier jams. The finer you slice (or mash) the faster the mixture will gel.The most depressing thing I’ve done all week, slicing up these beauties.2. Place prepared fruit and sugar together in a 10 or 12” stainless steel skillet, pot or (enameled) Dutch oven (NO non-stick cookware!) Any big, wide-bottomed pot will do, but do try to use a heavy-bottomed one (like copper-bottomed) that will disperse heat evenly.

3. Let strawberries and sugar stew for an hour, stirring every so often if you think of it. You can skip this step but the sugar holding tank will allow the strawberries to release more of their juice and keep some of the bright red color.

4. Add lemon juice and heat over medium heat until you can’t feel any more sugar granules.

5. Bring to a boil (takes about 4 minutes), mash half of the berry chunks with a potato masher if you’d like a smoother, less chunky jam.

6. Boil jam, stirring only to keep sugar from scorching bottom (not constantly) for about 10 minutes. Pay attention to the bubbles. (Even smaller batches will take half the time!)Early bubbles, lots of ‘em and they’re generally smaller.Gel indicator bubbles are darker and spaced farther apart, see!7. Remove pot from heat, let strawberries sit for a few minutes while you get jars ready. Skim foam now if you want to. Foam is a matter of aesthetics not safety. I usually try to skim (using a broad spoon in repeated strokes over the top), get frustrated and then say eff it. Zest half your lemon and stir gently to combine.

8. Fill one pint or two half-pint jars with hot sink water a few times, let them sit full of hot water for a minute or so. You’re just heating up the jars so they don’t break when you pour in the just-boiled jam.

9. Pour jam into warm jars, wipe rims clean with a damp paper towel or clean cloth, add (re-used) lids and let cool on the countertop.

10. Place jar(s) in fridge after countertop cooling for an hour or two.

Eat within 3-4 weeks! I’m especially attached to the two half-pints I made this morning because I threw into the mix of local berries a single—the only newly-ripe—berry from my back deck plant. A girl’s gotta get creative when the back deck harvest is meager.