We Asked 8 Chefs for Their Secrets to the Best Strawberry Jam

After a long winter, strawberries are one of the first fruits that pop up at farmers markets, signaling the beginning of spring and the impending summer produce season. Turning the juicy red berries into jam is a way to bottle a taste of the season so you can enjoy it all year long. 

The first step to making good strawberry jam is sourcing good strawberries: “The ideal berry should be Coca-Cola-can red. A little white at the hull is okay,” says Christina Ward, master food preserver and author of Preservation: The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation and Dehydration. She adds that it’s vital to flip the container over and look underneath, as strawberries “may look good on top but [can be] half-rotted at the bottom.”

Having a reliable strawberry jam recipe is also important, but certain ingredients and techniques can make your go-to jam taste more dynamic. Here are five ways chefs enhance classic strawberry jam. 

Easy Homemade Jam

Spice it up

Dried spices are an easy way to level up jam: Simply add them along with the fruit to steep as the jam cooks. Ground spices can be left in, while whole spices such as cinnamon sticks and peppercorns should be fished out at the end of cooking. For a standard jam recipe, start small — about a quarter of a teaspoon — and taste, adding more if you want a more pronounced flavor. 

Strawberries and black pepper is a classic combination and a favorite of Ward’s. Multiple chefs also sing the praises of sumac, a lemony spice made from a tart, dried berry. Sara May, a hospitality professional and recipe developer at Bloomsday in Philadelphia, says sumac “imparts a bright, puckery sourness without adding additional liquid to your jam.”

James Matty, the pastry chef at Suraya in Philadelphia, turns to Aleppo pepper to balance strawberries’ inherent sweetness — the pepper can “add a savory warmth that will give a ‘less-sweet’ sensation” — while May suggests jalapeño or dried chile de árbol for a more fiery, complex flavor profile. 

Other dried spices that work well with strawberries include dried ginger, pink peppercorns, cardamom, and cinnamon. Kyle Knall, chef and co-owner of Birch and Cassis in Milwaukee, adds that you shouldn’t forget salt. A liberal pinch won’t turn your jam savory, but it will give you a more pronounced strawberry flavor.

Bring in fresh herbs

Knall often turns to fresh herbs to flavor his jam and emphasizes waiting until the end of cooking to preserve their delicacy. His favorites are tarragon, basil, and lemon verbena for a refreshing herbal twist. Matty suggests adding hoja santa, an herb endemic to Central America with a peppery licorice flavor.

Florals are your friend

“Strawberries already taste very floral to me, so I lean in here,” says May, who likes to add rosewater and elderflower liqueur to her jam. Floral liqueurs and waters can be strong, so start with a few drops and adjust to your taste. These are best added at the end of cooking to preserve their flavor. 

Michael Hursa, executive chef at The Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges in New York, opts for dried rose petals and rose hips for a “tangy, lightly floral note” that he balances with sweet vanilla sugar. Matty prefers hibiscus, which he says imparts “a delicious tealike essence” and vibrant pink hue. Edible dried flowers can be added at the beginning of cooking to slowly infuse their flavor over time. If you don’t want the petals in the final product, try steeping them in a cheesecloth sachet or reusable tea infuser. 

Pair with another fruit

You can also elevate your fruit jam with more fruit. For jam recipes you plan to can, stick to just strawberries, or find a recipe that includes your fruit of choice to ensure the necessary safe sugar-to-acid ratio is reached. For freezer jam or a batch you plan to pop in the fridge and eat immediately, there’s a lot more flexibility. 

Strawberry and rhubarb is an iconic pairing for a reason, May says: “The bright acidity of the rhubarb balances the sweetness of the strawberries.” Most recipes recommend equal parts strawberries and rhubarb for the best flavor.

Strawberry-Vanilla-Rhubarb Jam

2 hrs 50 mins

Matty suggests fresh guava, partly because the tropical fruit pairs well with strawberries and partly because it adds extra pectin, which can help your jam set better. For other fruits that add pectin (Matty also likes black currants), start by replacing a quarter of the total fruit by weight and cooking it with the strawberries. Other firm, tart fruits can be incorporated following this rule as well; it’s up to your preference, so eat lots of jam and find out what you like best. 

Fresh passion fruit is another tropical fruit that tops many chefs’ lists. The pulp is very tangy and extremely fragrant — a natural complement to the syrupy sweetness of strawberries. A few spoonfuls can be stirred in at the end for a bright punch; this also goes for fruit pastes such as guava or quince. 

Amp up the acid

Jam is inherently very sweet, and balancing that with additional acid creates a more complex flavor and avoids overly sweet, one-note jam. All jam recipes, whether they’re meant to be canned or not, need acid to set properly. But some chefs recommend taking it a step further. 

Michele Casadei Massari, chef-owner of Lucciola in New York City, uses just a few drops of aged balsamic but notes that it’s important to add it off the heat at the end of cooking. “Heat destroys the volatile compounds that make aged balsamic interesting,” he says.

Citrus can also bring both flavor and some much-needed acid to the party. May advocates for lime — another classic partner of strawberries — while Marisa McClellan, author of Food in Jars, and Ashley Huston, owner of DreamWorld Bakes in Philadelphia, recommend Meyer lemons for their sweet-tart flavor profile. When adding citrus, stick to just the zest for flavor, and use the juice as the acid in your existing jam recipe. A mixture of both can really drive the flavor home.

Add a little fat

Because strawberries have relatively low pectin and high water content, their jam can be quite runny and may need additional sugar and pectin to set. If you’re looking for a workaround, try adding fat. This works for jam you plan to eat right away or store in the fridge for a few days, but not jam you plan to can. 

Matty turns to a pantry staple — olive oil — to add flavor and body. Vigorously stir in just a teaspoon to emulsify the oil with the water in the jam once it’s done cooking, and you’ll be rewarded with a velvety texture. Hursa reaches for a spoonful of bacon fat, which provides a savory counterpoint to the syrupy jam. He also uses this method to upgrade non-homemade jam: “Lightly season fresh strawberries with a bit of bacon fat before mixing them into store-bought jam.”

Macerate the fruit

Almost every chef we spoke with has the same top trick for leveling up strawberry jam: maceration, or leaving the strawberries in sugar overnight (which our jam recipe also recommends).

“[Maceration] draws out the natural water content and concentrates the flavor before any heat is involved. The result is a jam that tastes more of the fruit itself, less of the cooking process,” says Massari.

Matty recommends macerating strawberries with three-quarters of the total sugar to cut down on cooking time later; he also adds in lime zest or a vanilla bean at this stage to infuse flavor.

To make the best use of her macerating liquid, McClellan brings the liquid to a boil and lets it reduce before adding the fruit back in. She says this is her hack for getting strawberry jam that actually sets without added pectin. Since the fruit is exposed to heat for less time with the maceration method, it breaks down less and remains in larger pieces in the final product, yielding a jam with juicy chunks.

However you choose to upgrade your jam, remember that the strawberries should remain the star. “The underlying principle is that jam, like most preserved things, is just fruit that has been made more itself through time and intervention,” says Massari. “The goal is to respect that logic, not decorate over it.”