Strawberry Jam

Yesterday while picking up pies at the grocery store (for the brethren in our ward to eat after Priesthood Session), Flint and I spied strawberries on sale! One case (8 two-pound cartons) for just $5.99! How can you pass that price up?? As a child and adolescent, I helped my mom make strawberry freezer jam every year. However, as an adult, I have yet to make any on my own. With pleading eyes, I asked Flint if I could "splurge" and buy the strawberries and other needed ingredients for freezer jam. He said yes! This post is less of a recipe (because I followed the directions on the pectin box exactly) and more of a price breakdown. I like being able to look back and compare, so I know if I'm really getting a deal or not.

* Even though I had some ingredients on hand, I bought everything because it was all on sale. Oh, except lemon juice. I just used what I had.

Grocery Store Prices:
MCP fruit pectin, 3 boxes for $5.00
25 lb bag sugar, $9.99
1 case strawberries, $5.99
32 oz corn syrup, $2.49
Lemon juice, on hand

I made three batches and ended up with 12 pints and 1 half pint, plus a small container to go directly into my fridge. To make things easier, I will just say I ended up with 13 pints. Each batch took approximately two cartons of strawberries, which means I technically only used $4.50 worth of strawberries. Figuring out the cost of what sugar I actually used was the trickest part of this equation. After some research and mathematics, I found that each cup of sugar cost me $0.18. For the three batches, I used 21 cups of sugar (been to the dentist lately?!). I used all the pectin and most of the corn syrup. And I'm not going to worry about adding in the cost of the lemon juice.

Cost of Ingredients:
$4.50, strawberries
$5.00, pectin
$2.48, corn syrup
$3.78, sugar

Total cost: $15.78

$15.78 / 13 pints = $1.22 per pint

This is the point when I always stop and ask myself, was it worth it? In this circumstance, I am saying yes. I could probably get store-bought jam on sale for something close to that in price. But homemade tastes better. And the experience was fun. Thumbs up for making my own! I made apricot jam a few years ago - the kind that you actually boil and then process and seal in jars. That day was a huge mess and overall pain. Freezer jam is definitely the way to go! Like always, shoulda listened to my momma :)

Reminder to myself: Six 2 lb cartons made three batches, or 13 pints of freezer jam!