Strawberry Balasmic Black Pepper Jam

This is a very easy recipe. The key, of course, is to use the best possible strawberries.I bought mine as an add on to my mystery box from Mariquita Farms. I advise experimenting with the amount of both the balsamic and the pepper. Our goal was to keep the jam child friendly.

We made two batches. I'll include details for both below.

To start slice and crush 1 flat strawberries, large berries hulled. Keep in mind that the more crushed your berries are before beginning the less chunky your end product will be. If I were making this for myself I would prefer larger chunks but as I knew this jam had a future on almond butter sandwiches for K we mashed aggressively.

Batch one
12 cups mashed berries
6 cups sugar
6 tsp pectin powder (We used Pomona Pectin)
6 t calcium water (calcium water+ 1/2 t calcium powder and 1/2 cup water, shake and store in fridge)
6 T balsamic
1 t black pepper, finely ground

Batch two
8 cups berries
4 cups sugar
4 t pectin
4 t calcium water (see above)
5 T balsamic
1 t black pepper

Bring sliced and mashed berries along with calcium water to a boil in a large sauce pan. Combine sugar and pectin and add to boiling fruit. Stir vigorously for 2 minutes to dissolve pectin. Return to a boil and continue cooking until fruit begins to jell. Remove from heat, add balsamic and black pepper. Fill jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Note: I sent some of this to one of my authors. He reports that his wife enjoyed it with: Apple-Gouda sausages and Binkert’s Weisswurst.
Seems like an odd pairing to me but perhaps I'll try it someday.