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ladykitsu

A Pint of Strawberries???

ladykitsu
15 years ago

Ok, so the strawberries are coming fast and furious now. I wanted to make jam (obvious first attempt here). I was reading over the directions last night and all the recipes in the Ball blue book measure the strawberries in Pints.

So would I use cups instead - if so how would I measure them with all the air space (or would I chop or crush them first?)

Or would I find or buy a scale and weigh them. I belive someone said in another topic that 1 pint = 1 pound?

Thanks again for the help ya'll! Hopefully I'll get this figured out and my jam will be, well Jam-like :)

Laura

Comments (9)

  • grandad_2003
    15 years ago

    Laura, I made 4 batches of strawberry Jam this year and all came out perfectly jelled. In each recipe I used one foil
    packet of Certo (liquid) pectin. In each recipe I used 1 to 3 tablespoons of Meyer lemon juice (only because some like to dampen the sweetness). In each recipe I smashed about 1 cups of topped and washed straberries with a potato smasher to yielding the crushed fruit. The recipe called for 4 cups of crushed fruit to 7 cups of sugar. In all cases I had more than what was called for so I portioned the sugar to fruit recipe so that the 4:7 ratio was maintained, using 1 3/4c sugar per cup of fruit. I believe my crushed fruit amounts ranged from 4.5 c (7 7/8c sugar) in the smallest batch, up to 5.75 cup crushed fruit (10c sugar) in the largest batch. The smallest batch made 4 1/2 pts and the largest batch made 6 pts.

    I followed the recipe on cooking directions..

    Again, all 4 batches made this year jelled perfectly. I did not have great success over the last 3 year using the powdered pectin. So based on 4 of 4 successes I've decided to keep with this approach.

    I've seen LOTS of suggestions on making strawberry jam on this forum so surely there are other options... as others are likely to post..

  • grandad_2003
    15 years ago

    .. smashed about 10 cups in each batch (not one cup) .. sure wish we had edit capability after making a post..

  • zabby17
    15 years ago

    laura, a pint is two cups --- no different airspace or anything, and no need to get a scale. So if it says 2 pints, measure 4 cups, etc. (If you have a measuring cup that does more than one cup at a time it's easier, but there is no reason you can't just keep re-using your one-cup one.)

    Only chop them first if the recipe says to ("one pint of strawberries, chopped" means measure first, whereas "one pint of chopped strawberries" means chop first).

    Good luck!
    Zabby

  • ladykitsu
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    I'll give it a shot and see how it comes out. The worst it could do is not set well I guess ;)

    Thanks again ya'll!

    Laura

  • belindach
    15 years ago

    A pint is a liquid measurement term so I'd mash and use a liquid cup. A pound is the dry equivalent and I use weight or a dry measuring cup tool. Just the way I do it.

  • shirleywny5
    15 years ago

    Recipes in my Ball book call for cups of prepared fruit when making jam.

  • oldroser
    15 years ago

    A pint is a pound when it's water. Fruit has a different density and would weigh less than a pound. Better to measure than weigh unless recipe says to use weight.

  • ksrogers
    15 years ago

    Most markets now weigh the containers of strawberries, and don't sell them by the pint or quart anymore. Its not a nice thing for a person to open boxes and add extras to fill a sometimes low level. Not stealing?? I think it is..

  • melva02
    15 years ago

    Laura, I agree with Zabby, that Ball means a pint of whole strawberries. You do have to kind of eyeball the top layer as you match it up to the cup. If you keep all the strawberries below the line of a 1-cup measure, you'll have little dips in the surface, which would be filled by strawberries if you were measuring 2 cups at a time, you know? I let some poke up over the top a little to make up for where some sit beneath the line.

    I believe the pint measure is used because of the pint-quart-peck-bushel system for measuring produce. The air space is factored in. Oldroser is right about "a pint is a pound" referring to water. Fruit is mostly water so it would be close for crushed fruit, but not for whole berries where the reference quantity includes the air in between.

    Shirley has a good point. My Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving has the measurements in cups of crushed fruit too. Are you using a current copy of the Blue Book? If not, you definitely want to get one before your first canning project. They're about $10 at Walmart or a hardware store.

    Hope your jam turns out great!

    Melissa