Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Make homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Jam from fresh rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and lemon without pectin!

If you’ve ever made a homemade strawberry jam recipe, adding rhubarb enhances both the flavor and texture! You can easily store it in your refrigerator or freezer, or can it in a water bath to last all year long!

Want to save this recipe?

Enter your email below and I’ll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great recipe ideas from me every week!

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Email *

Save Recipe

Why this recipe works

• You will see that this recipe is not only incredibly simple with only four ingredients, but it is extremely easy to make.
• Strawberry and rhubarb are so amazing together. The combination is perfectly sweet and tart all at the same time.
• The jam tastes great on toast, oatmeal, mixed into overnight oats, on top of buttermilk pancakes, or on ice cream.
• Also, if you want to make a big batch, you can easily turn it into freezer jam or preserve it in a mason jar using a simple water bath canning set up for longer storage.

How to Make Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Step 1: Slice the Rhubarb

Slice your rhubarb into small chunks and be sure to discard the tops.

Step 2: Prep the Strawberries

Prepare your strawberries by washing them and removing the stems.

Step 3: Combine Everything in a Saucepan

Combine the fruit with the sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan.

Step 4: Heat Until It Bubbles

Turn the heat to medium and when the mixture starts to bubble, reduce the heat to low.

Step 5: Cook Until Thick

Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the jam thickens. It can take around an hour to fully breakdown and thicken. You’ll want the mixture to reach at least 220° F.

Step 6: Jar the Jam

I like to store my jam in mason jars. Refrigerate if you’ll eat it within a month, otherwise freeze or water bath can it.

Reasons to add rhubarb to strawberry jam

I actually use more than twice the amount of rhubarb in this recipe than I do strawberries.

I do this for a few reasons.

• First, rhubarb is much cheaper than strawberries (at least mine was).
• Second, if you’re not going to use pectin in a jam recipe, you need a lot of sugar in order to get your jam to gel up. Strawberries are already incredibly sweet, so the addition of a ton of sugar with a strawberry only jam is just way too sweet. Rhubarb, however, is incredibly tart, so the addition of sugar makes everything right in the world.

I saw a lot of recipes online that called for a heck of a lot more sugar than I used and let me tell you – if you’re using good quality sweet strawberries, I wouldn’t put any more sugar than what my recipe calls for. The balance was perfect as was the final consistency.

How much does this recipe make?

As written, this recipe makes about 4 cups of homemade jam.

As much pleasure as I would have taken in devouring all four cups with a spoon and some crusty white bread, I decided to can four mason jars of this liquid gold for the winter months when I’m craving the summer bounty that had long since come and gone. I did, however, get enough extra to fill this little dish which made for some incredibly tasty treats.

If you don’t want to can the jam, it will keep in the refrigerator for about a month, but let’s face it – canning is fun!  So preserve it!

Can you use frozen strawberries?

Absolutely. My preference is always to make things seasonally when produce is fresh, but since both the strawberries and rhubarb are both cooked down, it makes no difference at all – zero, zilch, nada – whether you use fresh or frozen fruit.

Finding frozen rhubarb at the store, well, that’s a challenge in and of itself.

My advice to each and every one of you is to buy as much rhubarb from the farmers’ market when it’s in season as your freezer can hold and freeze it yourself.

The reason for adding lemon juice when making jam:

Besides that glorious citrus flavor lemon adds, you need it in your recipe when making homemade jam, including this strawberry rhubarb version.

There’s a little food science involved in understanding the importance of adding lemon.

In a nutshell, when you cook down fruit like strawberries and rhubarb with sugar, the natural pectin in the fruit breaks down, but that pectin won’t bind together because the individual cells actually repel one another.

We all know lemon juice is acidic, which means it has a lower pH. When lowering the pH of your mixture, it neutralizes the negative charges on the pectin (the thing that made the cells repel), and then the jam can come together and gel.

What do you know? That chemical engineering degree of mine wasn’t a total waste after all!

How This Jam Sets Without Pectin

There’s no added pectin in this recipe. The jam sets because you cook the fruit down with the sugar and lemon juice until it reaches 220°F. That’s the temperature where the sugar is concentrated enough to gel.

It won’t be as firm as jam made with a box of pectin, and that’s how I like it. I prefer my jam on the thinner side. It thickens to the point where it spreads nicely, and it keeps thickening as it cools.

If yours is runny, it most likely needed to cook longer. Cook it uncovered, use a thermometer, and keep going until it hits 220°F. Fruit with a lot of water in it (including frozen fruit) takes longer. If you like a thicker jam, you can always add some pectin.

Can I Use a Sugar Substitute or Less Sugar?

I’ve never made this recipe with a sugar substitute, so I can’t promise how it will turn out. Because there’s no added pectin, the sugar is a big part of what makes this jam set, and a substitute won’t thicken the same way. The same goes for cutting the sugar way down. Rhubarb is super tart and needs the sugar to balance it, too.

If you need a low-sugar or sugar-free jam, your best bet is a pectin labeled “low or no-sugar needed” and the recipe on that package. Jam made with less sugar also doesn’t keep as long, so store it in the fridge or freezer.

Can I Double This Recipe?

I’ve doubled it in a big, wide pot, but it takes longer to reach 220°F and is more likely to come out runny, so one batch at a time is the safer bet.

How to Store Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

In the fridge: Jam that hasn’t been canned, and any jar you’ve opened, keeps in the refrigerator for about a month.

In the freezer: You can skip the canning and freeze it instead. Let the jam cool, leave room at the top of the jar for it to expand, and freeze. It’s best within 6 months.

Canned: Jars that have been processed in a water bath and are fully sealed keep in a cool, dark place for up to a year. The water bath is what makes the jam shelf stable. A lid that seals on its own from hot jam, a vacuum sealer or turning the jar upside down doesn’t count, so keep those jars in the fridge or freezer.

More Strawberry Rhubarb Recipes

If you love the mouthwatering combination of strawberry and rhubarb, you’ll love these!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Strawberry Rhubarb Streusel Muffins

Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade

Over on Ten Acre Baker: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp – The fruit filling tastes like it’s topped with a warm oatmeal cookie.