Strawberries!

Strawberry prices in the city never seem to come down enough to make them seem economical, even at the peak of the season. Thank god for Niagara, where you can get bulk quantities of berries and fruit at reasonable prices.

In this case, I managed to get a gorgeous flat of strawberries for $18. I decided on two different canning recipes: a very traditional jam from Blue Ribbon, and a modern interpretation of strawberry balsamic jam from Eugenia Bone.

The traditional jam? Absolute perfection. I used liquid pectin which set the jam beautifully. The yield was perfect too: seven half-pint jars.

The balsamic jam? A very different process. Instead of thickening with pectin, the strawberries were cooked for a very long time (45 minutes). While it resulted in beautiful thickness, the down-side was a huge reduction in volume, using almost twice as many berries for much less yield than the traditional.

Still, the addition of the best balsamic vinegar gave it an incredibly rich flavour: dark and complex. It looks amazing.