Last spring, I attended a party at which the dessert was an enormous tray of ripe, local strawberries. The berries were artfully arranged around a jar of honey from nearby hives. And though the berries were plenty sweet all on their own, our host encouraged us to dip the strawberries in the honey before taking a bite. The combination of strawberries and honey was a revelation.
Within minutes, I started imagining a strawberry preserve sweetened with honey. As I played the flavors out in my head, I added a few sprigs of thyme so that the finished product would have just a faint herbal whisper.
Because honey is expensive and I didn't know how well the pairing would work, I made just a bit. And to my mind, that's one of the joys of small batch canning. You don't have mountains of produce invested in each batch and so there's more space to be daring and attempt new flavor combinations.
To my palate, this particular combination of strawberries, honey, thyme and a small squirt of lemon juice was hugely successful. However, if you don't have easy access to thyme, feel free to try it with another herb. I've also paired strawberries with rosemary or lavender before and both were happy combinations.
Tips for small batch jam making:
• Don't reach for your regular jam pan or Dutch oven. Go for your widest non-reactive skillet or sauté pan. My favorite is a 12-inch stainless steel skillet.
• Stay close. These small batches of jam only need 8-12 minutes of cooking time, so you want to keep your eye on the pan.
• Keep stirring. Because the cooking time is so compressed, small batches can go from undercooked to burnt in the space of 30 seconds. Stir constantly so that you don't miss the sweet spot.
• Test for doneness with a swipe of a silicone spatula. Drag it through the center of the cooking jam. If the space you've cleared stays empty for several seconds, it is done. If the jam immediately rushes in to fill the space, it needs more time.
A honey note: To avoid a sticky measuring cup, measure the honey by weight. One cup of honey weighs 12 ounces. I like to place the bowl of strawberries right on my scale, zero out the weight and then pour the honey directly over the berries.
Strawberry Thyme Jam
Makes 1 pint1 quart strawberries (approximately 3 cups chopped)
1 cup honey (12 ounces)
5 to 6 sprigs thyme
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Chop berries and place them in a bowl. Add honey and stir. Strip thyme leaves off branches and add them to the strawberries and honey. Stir to combine.
When honey has dissolved and the strawberries are quite juicy, scrape the mixture into your pan.
Bring to a bubble and cook over high heat for 8 to 12 minutes, until the jam is thick and sticky.
Funnel jam into two prepared half pint jars and process in a small water bath canner for 10 minutes.
When time is up, remove jars from canner and let them cool on a folded kitchen towel. When they're cool enough to handle, remove the rings and check seals. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and eaten promptly. Sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to one year.
This recipe doesn't have to be processed in a water bath canner. If you prefer, you can skip that step and simply refrigerate the finished jars once they're cool. It will keep 3 to 4 weeks in the fridge.

Earlier Installments in This Series:
• Why Small Batch Canning Is Awesome: And What You Need To Get Started
More Food In Jars
• Visit Food in Jars, Marisa's blog
• Find Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round, Marisa' new book, at your local library, independent bookstore, or on Amazon.com
Marisa McClellan is our guest feature writer for June. She is a food writer, canning teacher, and dedicated farmers' market shopper who lives in Center City Philadelphia with her husband Scott McNulty. She's the author of the blog Food in Jars and spends most of her days cooking up jams, fruit butters and pickles in her 80 square foot kitchen. Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches All Year Long is her very first cookbook.
(Images: Marisa McClellan)
Kart Serving Tray b...

Comments (13)
great tip for measuring honey - I must remember this!
This looks amazing - did I understand correctly that you can skip the canning process? How will that affect the final product - is it just a matter of not being able to store it for as long? Many thanks!
i have a just about to go-off bowl of strawberries in my fridge, thanks for the recipe!
"did I understand correctly that you can skip the canning process? How will that affect the final product - is it just a matter of not being able to store it for as long? "
Not the author here, but you're correct. You can skip the canning process for any jam recipe you want -- all that will happen is that you won't be able to store it in the cupboard, and will have to store it in the fridge.
Conversely, if you WANT to store it in the cupboard, you can then proceed to the canning step, which -- if you've done canning before -- should be a process well known to you.
I need to gripe. Strawberry jam is awesome. It's not so common I'm bored with it. I get so bummed when our farm box has strawberry-lavender or strawberry-thyme jam; I enjoy novelty, but man strawberry jam is SO GOOD when it is good, the novelty makes me grumpy. The herbs make it medicine-y in my opinion. So if I'm getting some as a present...can I just have plain strawberry, please? End of gripe. Carry on!
I've never used honey instead of sugar. If we do can it, I assume it's the same process/time?
When do you add the lemon juice?
@empresscallipygos thanks for that clarification :) will try this out hopefully this weekend!
Just made this today, and it's delicious! The honey solves SO many problems I've had with making traditional jam: added sugar and added fake pectin. This was the tastiest, jelly-est jam I've ever made, and the ingredients were so simple. No sugar or pectin added.
I didn't put the lemon juice in, because I didn't happen to have any lemons for some reason. It's totally fine without it. I don't think the thyme adds an extra flavor; it just perks up the strawberry flavor to let it hold its own against all that honey flavor.
Now I'm wondering what else I can use honey to make jam with...maybe blueberries?
Also, mine made slightly more than a pint--about 1 1/3 pints. Which is perfect because that means there's some in the fridge to eat this week...
A note on the lemon juice (though not the original author)-- if you're not using lemon juice, then just be careful when water-bath canning. The lemon is used to acidify the jam to help preserve it properly. Low-acid foods can still grow nasties in the absence of air when canned, so it's to be on the safe side to use lemon juice or citric acid, or vinegar. Strawberries shouldn't be much of an issue, but acidifying is a crucial canning step for fruits like tomatoes or figs and can't be skipped.
Same question as Katibop - when to add the lemon juice? I'd guess towards the very end... ?
Novice canner here with another question: Is there a certain amount of air (e.g. 1/2", etc.) I need to leave at top of jar before sealing and processing in water bath? I've only done tomatoes before, where that's an important thing to know/do. Author or others with experience, can you please chime in and help? I'd love to make some of this today, strawberries at the market are beautiful...
@KBAGEL: With jams, you usually want to leave a quarter inch of headspace between the top of the jam and the rim of the jar. Hope that helps!