Strawberry Balsamic Pepper Preserve

Strawberry Balsamic Pepper Preserve is an amazing combination of strawberry, balsamic vinegar, and pepper which can be made in bulk to store and tastes amazing with toast and muffins!

I love strawberries and I have been buying them by the kilos from my grocer and using them in everything. Baking with them, eating them just like that, making a jam or cheesecakes, and ice creams. Then somewhere an idea hit me to use it with balsamic vinegar. I had seen Sonya use pepper with them and I knew that strawberry, balsamic vinegar, and pepper is a combination that HAS to be tried. I loved trying out this strawberry balsamic pepper preserve!

I tried and loved it. We finished a bottle in a week and then I made again. To be honest, we finished it yet again. This recipe is a keeper I assure you. This way of making strawberry jam is as simple as 1-2-3. So I thought I will do a quick post with it.

The best part about making jams at home is you can control what goes into them. You can get the right proportion of ingredients and vary the taste to suit your individual taste buds. My biggest grouse with store bought jams is that you can barely taste the fruit with which they are made! It is more about the sugar/sweetener which is added to the jam, than the fruit of the jam itself. That is why when you make jams at home, you can make the fruit as the star of the dish. When you put it on a piece of toast, you will feel you are eating real fruit instead of a sweetened version of something which resembles fruit 🙂

A good jam tastes amazing by itself and that is what this jam is all about. The tartness provided by the balsamic vinegar and the slight hint of hotness provided by the pepper with the sweetness of the strawberries gives this jam a very balanced and nuanced taste. So what are you waiting for, get those fresh strawberries and make some delicious jam out of them!

Strawberry Balsamic Pepper Preserve

Strawberry Balsamic Pepper Preserve is an amazing combination of strawberry, balsamic vinegar and pepper which can be made in bulk to store and tastes amazing with toast and muffins! 

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Course Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine American, british, continental

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups strawberries chopped
• 1 cup brown sugar (I used 1/2 cup)
• 2 tbsps balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsps lemon juice
• 1 pod vanilla

Instructions

 

• Cut and scrape the vanilla pods to gather all the vanilla seeds.
• Soak washed strawberries with sugar, lemon juice and vanilla (both the seeds and pod) for two hours, they will leave a lot of water.
• At this point start to heat them, bring to a boil and reduce the heat.
• Add freshly ground pepper and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or so till it thickens.
• Add the balsamic vinegar and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Switch off the gas and let the preserve cool down.
• Take off the vanilla pod and put it in sterilized jam cans.

Notes

Shelf Life - 1 week at room temperature and 1 month in the refrigerator. The one I make never gets past the one week mark! 

 

 

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Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!