The little jar of jam was a blast from the past. Niece Sarah remembered my sister Sally making it and how much she loved it when she was little. In my early 20s, about half a century ago, the recipe was one of my first forays into jam and jelly making, and I thought it was wonderful. All you need is rhubarb, sugar and strawberry Jell-O.
You may have noticed by now, that not many pre-prepared and packaged goods appear here and that I am a pretty dedicated from-scratch cook. So when Sarah suggested this version of strawberry rhubarb jam I muttered something self-righteous, and she pointed out that we eat hot dogs, so I conceded.
Here is the basic dilemma. Rhubarb is so very plentiful this season of the year. Fresh, local, ripe strawberries are not plentiful until later June. When strawberries are fresh and wonderful, rhubarb will have set a lot of blossoms and begun to toughen and fade.
And, besides, I love strawberries so much by themselves that I want to eat them sliced, strewn with a little sugar and splashed with cream, straight from a bowl. Or I want strawberry sorbet, intensely flavored with strawberries. Or shortcake, with almost more strawberries than sweet biscuit. And, of course, I want to make straight-up strawberry jam, with little nuggets of strawberry imprisoned densely in strawberry jelly.
As much as I like rhubarb, I don’t want to muck up my strawberries with it.
The solution? First off, you can whack the rhubarb blossoms off as soon as they crop up. That helps the plant produce more leaves and stalks long enough to use them with fresh strawberries if you want to make something terrific, such as pie or from-scratch strawberry rhubarb jam. If the rhubarb always gets away from you, then the recipe below will work right now for a batch of jam.
Trying to reverse engineer strawberry Jell-O ought to work with using gelatin, sugar and strawberry juice. You can find strawberry juice online more easily than in a store. Lots of bottled juices combine strawberry with other juices, which doesn’t work as well if you want good, strong strawberry flavor. Obviously, frozen strawberries will work, and so will fresh ones in the produce section if you can overlook their white centers and insipid flavor.
The other dodge around the strawberry problem I experimented with was acquiring a good quality strawberry jam, preferably one that has an ingredient list that starts with strawberries instead of sugar. I chopped up 4 four cups of rhubarb (six to seven stalks) and added 2 ½ cups of sugar and let it macerate for an afternoon. I cooked the mixture until the rhubarb softened, then added 1 cup (8 oz.) of good quality strawberry jam plus a half cup of water, stirring until the jam dissolved. I cooked it all together until it sheeted off a spoon, and then I processed it in a boiling water bath. The result is more tangy than the Jell-O jam, but you can always add sugar to taste.
You might be a freezer jam kind of person. My freezer is already jammed so I process my jam and jellies in a boiling water bath so I can keep them in a cupboard.
I have to say, the Jell-O jam tasted exactly like I recalled, almost too sweet for me, but Sarah was ecstatic. I can tell that jam won’t last long.
Rhubarb and Strawberry Jell-O Jam
5 cups of rhubarb, about 6-8 stalks, chopped
3 cups sugar or slightly less, to taste
1 small, 3-ounce package of strawberry Jell-O
Put the chopped rhubarb into a bowl and add the sugar. Stir well and let stand overnight.
The rhubarb and sugar will form a thick syrup, which you can cook in a broad skillet or preserve pan for about 10 minutes.
The mixture will reduce somewhat and rhubarb will be very soft.
Add the package of Jell-O, stirring to combine. The mixture will thicken right away.
Take off the heat and spoon into sterilized jelly jars.
If you wish, you can process them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, or you can freeze them as freezer jam.
Makes 3-4 half pints.
