How to Can Strawberry Butter

Unlike the jam alternative, strawberry butter is a delicious, spreadable sauce that can’t be beaten. Made from fresh fruit, it’s a super simple recipe made with only four ingredients. While it can be kept fresh in the refrigerator, this butter is especially good when it’s canned for shelf-stable storage. Either way, there’s never a better time than now to make this recipe.

Why this recipe works.

Fruit butter is not something we run to the refrigerator for anymore. All fruit spreads have slowly morphed into each other, and the usual jam or jelly is used as the common denominator when needing something sweet and fruity to spread over toast. To make them at home, it is important to know each one has a purpose and is different:

• Jelly is clear, made with fruit juice, and thickened with pectin.
• Jam and preserves are made with pieces of fruit and juice and can be thickened with pectin or left natural.
• Fruit butter uses the entire fruit, mashing it down and cooking, leaving no need for pectin.

Fruit butter is my choice when preserving any fruit into a spread. The resulting butter is thick and viscous without any thickening agent. The word butter is used to describe the consistency of butter at room temperature, the same spreadable texture as a fruit butter. The total time is quick, and the flavor is left intact. Once you try this, you will never want anything else.

Everything you’ll need to make this recipe.

• Strawberries will always have the best flavor when picked locally and in season. Starting with the best berries possible will create the most flavor in the spread.
• Sugar works to both sweeten and thicken the butter and is definitely necessary in order to create the correct texture.
• Lemon juice helps to add brightness to the butter while enhancing the flavor of the strawberries.
• Vanilla beans impart a full vanilla flavor instead of a traditional vanilla extract.

Here’s how to make this recipe.

1. Mash the strawberries. Hull the strawberries to remove the top. Then place in a large heavy-bottom kettle. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla beans, slicing the beans to expose the vanilla bean seeds inside. Using a masher, mash the strawberries until a decent amount of liquid has collected at the bottom of the kettle.

2. Cook the strawberries. Place the kettle on the stove and bring it to a rolling boil. A rolling boil is a boil that cannot be tamed even when it is stirred. Once at a rolling boil, turn the heat down slightly and let the mixture cook to condense. If canning the strawberry butter, have a kettle filled with water and fitted with a wire rack. Bring the water to a boil and sterilize the jars. When the butter has fully cooked, use a spoon to remove any of the foam. Also, remove the vanilla beans.

3. Blend the mixture. Once the mixture has condensed, remove it from the heat. Using an immersion blender or canister blended, purée the mixture until smooth.

4. Pour into jars. Using a funnel and ladle, pour the butter into the sterilized half-pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace at the top. Once all of the jars are filled, use a paper towel dabbed in a bit of hot water to wipe off the top of each jar. Place on the lid and ring and twist to fingertip tightness.

5. Can the butter. Using a jar lifter, place all of the jars into a large kettle filled with boiling water and a metal rack on the bottom. Make sure that the top of each jar is covered by an inch of water. Process for the appropriate time (see below). Once they’re processed, use a jar lifter to remove the jars from the kettle, tilting each one to remove any water on the top. Let the jars sit for 24 hours without being disturbed to ensure each jar seals. After 24 hours, remove the rings and store them in a cool, dark place.

These pro tips will make this recipe a success.

• To save time, skip slicing the strawberries once they’re hulled. Since there is a long cooking time, there is no benefit to taking the time to slice each strawberry in half or in quarters. Simply let the masher and stove do all of the work.
• While some recipes will instruct you to remove the foam from the butter as it’s boiling, I find that it’s best to wait until the end of the boiling to remove it. Some of the foam will dissipate as it continues to boil, increasing the overall amount of butter. The foam has air, which is not desirable when canning jam or butter.
• To assess the texture of your strawberry butter, place a plate in the freezer. When ready to test, place some of the blended butter on the plate. Tilt the plate, letting the butter fall slowly. The cold will act as an indicator of what the consistency will be once it has cooled. If you draw your finger through the butter without it running back together, the butter is ready.
• Make sure to wipe off the rim of each jar after ladling in the butter. This ensures that no spots of the butter are on the rim, leading to a faulty seal.
• Removing the rings from each jar will ensure that the seal on each jar is correct. If the rings are left on, the jar could have a false seal, which would be unknown until the jar is later opened.

You’ll love these other jam and butter recipes.

• Low-sugar strawberry freezer jam
• Slow cooker pear butter
• How to can cherry jam
• How to can blueberry jam
• How to can rhubarb jam
• How to can strawberry jam
• Peach jalapeño jam
• How to can grape butter
• How to can orange and rhubarb jam
• Rhubarb butter