How To Make Strawberry Freezer Jam (The Cheaper Way)

Strawberry freezer jam is one of the most delicious ways you can use a big flat of strawberries. This recipe for homemade strawberry freezer jam is easy to make and will save you money because you don’t have to buy pectin.

In the past, I have always followed the recipe on the side of the pectin box. But dang, pectin is kind of pricey, especially if you have a LOT of strawberries! The traditional jam recipe calls for one box of pectin for every two cups of strawberries. With as many berries as I had, that meant I would have to buy five boxes of pectin, which would cost about $10. What if I told you there’s a way to make freezer jam without buying pectin? And the total cost for 10 cups of strawberries would only be $2? And it’s something you might already have on hand?

Here’s the secret ingredient:

Good old strawberry gelatin!

Yup. At 50 cents a box, Jello is much cheaper than pectin! Thanks to my awesome aunt, who loves saving money as much as I do, for introducing this recipe to me. So, do you want to learn how to make it?

Jello Freezer Jam

• 10 cups strawberries, washed and crushed
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large (6 oz) or 4 small (3 oz) boxes strawberry Jell-O

Step 1: Wash strawberries, remove green leaves, then crush until you have 10 cups of crushed fruit.

Step 2: In your largest pot, combine strawberries and sugar. Let stand for 1 hour. Heat to boiling, then simmer for 15 minutes.

Step 3: Use a potato masher to crush the strawberries even more.

Step 4: Wipe down the sides of the pan so no sugar granules remain or the jam will have a grainy texture later.

Step 5: Stir in the Jell-O. Fill clean containers with jam. I didn’t have a canning jar filler, so I used a big plastic cup with a hole in the bottom. I put my jam in mason jars even though I didn’t actually can the jam. You can also store the jam in plastic food containers or even plastic freezer bags.

Step 6: Freeze the jam. Thaw in the fridge before serving on toast, waffles, sandwiches or even ice cream. This jam is good in the freezer for 3-6 months, but you’ll be lucky if it lasts that long. Our family devoured it!

I got six and a half pints from this recipe, which is perfect….the half-filled jar is for eating right now.

One really cool thing about making this kind of jam is that you can change the flavor of the jam by using different flavors of gelatin. How about strawberry lemonade jam or strawberry/raspberry jam? So many different combinations are possible! This time I went with two boxes of strawberry and two boxes of raspberry and the jam is to die for.