Marsha's Green Bean Casserole

This is my take on the traditional green bean casserole, but since we don't like mushrooms, this recipe uses cream of chicken soup, bacon and cheddar cheese. Enjoy!

Marsha's Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of chicken soup
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 2 cans (15 oz) cut green beans, drained
• handful of bacon bits
• handful of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 a can of crispy fried onions

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9 baking dish.
2. Combine all ingredients except for the crispy onions (those go on top later). Pour everything into your prepared baking dish.
3. Bake for about 30 minutes or until bubbly and the casserole reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
4. Top with crispy onions and return to the oven for 5 minutes. Serve.

Marsha's Notes:

This is what the casserole looks like before you bake it. Once hot and bubbly, then you add the crispy onions on top.

Marsha's Sweet Potato Casserole

After making my favorite recipe recently, I decided to do a few easy tweaks and make it "Marsha's version." It turned out super good and I want to document it here. It's not much different, but just slightly different than this recipe: https://1brother2sisters.blogspot.com/2019/12/sweet-potato-casserole.html

Marsha's Sweet Potato Casserole

Casserole:

• 1 large can (approximately 30 oz.) sweet potatoes
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Topping:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, cold cut into pieces
• honey roasted pecan pieces, about a handful
• pinch of salt
• mini marshmallows (for topping later in baking)

Directions:

1. Combine all casserole ingredients and place in a greased square baking dish. 
2. Mix all topping ingredients together (except marshmallows) with a fork until crumbly and sprinkle on potatoes. (You may find it easiest to mix the flour, oats, brown sugar and salt together first, then cut in the cold butter with your fork, and finally toss in the nuts.)
3. Bake at 325 degrees for 18 minutes. 
4. Add marshmallows and cook until brown and melted, or until internal temperature of the middle of the casserole reaches 165 degrees to make sure the eggs in the base are properly cooked.
• The recipe notes that this could take as long as 15 minutes, but not always.

Marsha's Notes:

This is what the sweet potato layer looks like before you put on the topping.

Here is the topping all crumbled up and ready to go on top (minus the nuts)

Because not everyone likes nuts, I sprinkled the nuts on top of the topping, but only on half of the dish.

I didn't get a picture of the casserole after it came out of the oven with the marshmallows on top before people started digging in, so I will have to try to get that the next time I make these.

These are the pecan pieces that I used.

Cranberry Sauce

Here is my version of homemade cranberry sauce. I don't like bitter cranberry stuff, so mine is pretty sweet and very jam-like. You can, of course, adjust things to your personal tastes. 

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 package cranberries (3 to 3 1/2 cups fresh or frozen)
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
• pinch of salt
• squeeze of lemon

Directions:

1. Bring water and 1 cup sugar to a boil. 
2. Rise your cranberries. Remove any leaves, stems or debris from your berries.
3. Add cranberries to the boiling water. Then add you salt and lemon juice. 
4. Stir and boil until cranberries pop and start to breakdown. 
5. When cranberry sauce starts to get to your desired thickness (jam consistency), taste test and add additional 1/2 cup of sugar or so, if desired. Some batches of cranberries are more tart than others. 
6. Once the flavor is where you want it, I just keep cooking and stirring until all the berries are popped (or I mash them against the side of the pan while I am stirring to help them pop) and the sauce/jam is thickened to my liking. 
7. Let cool for a few minutes off the heat, then pour into your storage containers. For me, this made two containers, so I put one in the freezer.

Winter Candied Pecans

These are a fun take on candied pecans with a winter-feel because of the powdered sugar coating. Everyone in the house really liked them, but they are not an exact dupe of the kind of cinnamon candied pecans/nuts you can get in the mall, at sporting events, or comic con, so I will keep looking for more recipes to try. But this one is fun for the holidays.

See the original recipe at Belly Full: https://bellyfull.net/candied-pecans/#wprm-recipe-container-24945

Winter Candied Pecans

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 pound pecan halves
• 1/2 cup butter , melted
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; add vanilla and gradually add sugar. Toss in the pecans and mix gently with a wooden spoon or spatula until they are coated thoroughly.
3. Pour melted butter on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Spread the pecans out evenly over the baking sheet and cook for 40 minutes, turning them every 10 minutes with a spatula – do not skip this step! (They will look like a gloppy mess at first, but don’t worry! Keep turning as instructed and all will be good.)
5. Remove from oven and cool for about 2 minutes (I actually found that they were still too hot at 2 minutes and tried to melt the bag, so I would give them maybe 5-10 minutes next time).
6. Place powdered sugar and cinnamon in a large resealable plastic bag; add in the pecans, seal and shake until coated.
7. Best served warm, but absolutely delicious even after a few weeks!

Marsha's Notes:

To get the perfectly white coating as the ones pictures above, you need to make sure the nuts aren't too hot and possibly coat them more than once if the first coating gets too moist, like the nuts pictured below. I also thought 40 minutes over-cooked mine on a convection oven just a touch, so I might also try 35 minutes next time (update: which worked out better).

Pumpkin Steamer

One of my recipes doesn't use a full can of pumpkin and this delicious steamer is a great drink to use up some of that leftover pumpkin puree. View the original recipe from Six Sister's Stuff here: https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/pumpkin-steamers/#wprm-recipe-container-108919

Six Sisters Stuff Pumpkin Steamer

Ingredients:

• 4 cups vanilla almond milk
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 2 Tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• whipped cream and cinnamon for topping

Directions:

1. In a pot over medium heat, whisk all ingredients together, besides the toppings, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
2. Serve warm, and top with whipped cream and cinnamon.

Marsha's Notes:

I don't always have sweetened condensed milk on hand, so I subbed with some caramel sauce instead and it was great!

Half of this recipe filled the cup you see in the above image, but if you only want one regular mugfull, make 1/4 of this recipe. So I would say this serves 4, but if you do a large cup, then this serves 2. It is about 200 calories for 4 servings, depending on what kind of milk you use. If you subbed cashew milk, it would be less, regular milk it would be more. You could also continue to cut calories by using zero calorie sweeteners for the brown sugar and condensed milk.

Easy Ranch Dip- Marsha's Favorite for Veggies

This is my go-to dip for cut-up raw veggies! So easy, so good, and I think tastes even better after it sits for a day or so.

Easy Ranch Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 pkt Hidden Valley Ranch Dips Mix
• 16 oz container sour cream

Directions:

1. Mix together. That's it! 
2. Keep cold.

Turkey and Ham Tips

This will be our first Thanksgiving doing the entire meal at our house with just us and our kiddos. I wanted to document some of the things I had to look up, and if all goes well, then I'll have this information for future reference. Hope it's helpful!

Turkey Tips from Taste of Home:

Cook Times:

Turkey Weight	Cooking Time	Doneness Temperature
4-6 lb. breast	1 hr 30 mins–2 hrs 15 mins	165°F
6-8 lb. breast	2 hrs 15 mins–3 hrs 15 mins	165°F
8-12 lbs.	2 hrs 45 mins–3 hrs	170-175°F
12-14 lbs.	3 hrs–3 hrs 45 mins	170-175°F
14-18 lbs.	3 hrs 45 mins–4 hrs 15 mins	170-175°F
18-20 lbs.	4 hrs 15 mins–4 hrs 30 mins	170-175°F
20-24 lbs.	4 hrs 30 mins–5 hrs	170-175°F

Note: All times are accurate for a 325°F oven.

The general rule is 15 to 20 minutes per pound of turkey when cooking an unstuffed turkey. Roasting a stuffed turkey is no longer considered food-safe.

1. Defrost. Thawing a turkey can take anywhere from three to five days. So if you’ve bought a frozen turkey, be sure it is placed in the refrigerator with plenty of time to thaw. 
• In 2020, we did a 5-6 lb breast and pulled it from the freeze to the fridge the Monday before Thanksgiving, giving it three days to thaw.
• In 2024 we did a similar thing where I got a 5-6 lb breast on Thursday from the freezer at the store, put it on a plate in the fridge to thaw and cooked it on Monday. It took about two hours to cook at 325 degrees. My time table was this:
• Start preheating the roaster oven to 325 degrees at about 2:30 pm.
• Place the oiled and seasoned turkey into the roaster with the rack at about 2:45 pm.  Insert a thermometer into one of the biggest parts of the meat. Cover with lid. Leave the lid on and don't open while cooking.
• Cook until meat reaches 165 degrees (in this case for 5-6 lbs it was about 2 hours).
• Take lid off and turn the roaster off and let the turkey sit in the roaster for about 20 minutes to let the juices redistribute.
• If you aren't ready to eat for a bit, once the roaster is mostly cool, put the lid back on to keep the turkey warm but no longer cooking it.
2. Preheat the Oven. Set aside 15 to 20 minutes to allow your oven to thoroughly preheat. Since many home ovens heat unevenly, it’s a good idea to let your oven come up to temperature, then wait 5 to 10 more minutes before placing the turkey inside. This allows the heat to evenly disperse in the oven before you open the door. It is also a good idea to rotate your turkey at least every hour to help everything cook evenly.
3. Rest. Finally, allow the turkey to rest for at least 30 minutes before you carve it. Resting lets the meat cool slightly and reabsorb juices that were bubbling to the surface in the hot oven. This reabsorption is what gives you plump, tender meat. If you carve the turkey right away, you lose all that tenderness in a puddle on your cutting board or plate!

How do I get crispy, brown skin on my turkey?

The trick to crisp, golden brown skin starts before the turkey even goes in the oven. Plus, you already have this secret ingredient in your pantry! The day before Thanksgiving, remove the bird from its packaging and take out the giblets. Then, massage kosher salt all over the turkey. Return the bird to the fridge until it’s ready to roast on the big day. This technique not only seasons the meat, it also helps to draw out excess moisture from the skin that, once baked, will be nice and crispy.

Should I baste my turkey?

No—and it all has to do with temperature. Basting requires you to open the oven door, which lets heat out and cools the surface of your bird. Every time you baste, you’re increasing the overall cooking time of your turkey. And more time in the oven leads to dry, tough meat.

View the entire article here: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-long-to-cook-a-turkey/

How long to cook a spiral sliced ham?

A spiral sliced ham cooked about the same way. Bake at 250 degrees for 15 min per pound.

Layered Pumpkin Dessert

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Layered Pumpkin Dessert

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. (15 oz.) Twinkies (ten Twinkies)
• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 container (8 oz.) whipped topping
• 2 pkg. (3.4 oz. each) instant vanilla pudding
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup milk
• Additional pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Slice Twinkies in half lengthwise and place cream-side up, in single layer, in 9x13 baking dish. 
2. Using a mixer, blend together cream cheese, powdered sugar and ½ of whipped topping until smooth.  Spread evenly over Twinkies.  
3. Combine pudding mix, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and milk.  Whisk until well blended and layer over cream cheese mixture.  
4. Carefully spread remaining whipped topping over pumpkin.  Lightly sprinkle with additional pumpkin pie spice.  Refrigerate several hours or until set.

Candied Yams

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Candied Yams

Ingredients:

• Precook 3 large yams until quite done
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 Tbl butter
• 1 Tbl vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix sugar, flour and milk together.  
2. Cook on low heat stirring constantly until bubbly and thickened.  
3. Add butter and vanilla.  
4. Slice precooked yams in baking dish, pour sauce over top.  
5. Cook 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  
6. Cover with marshmallows and brown under broiler, watch closely so not to burn.

Pumpkin Dessert

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Dessert

Ingredients:

Dessert:

• 1 yellow cake mix (1 cup set aside)
• ½ cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 2 cups pumpkin
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves

Topping:

• 1 cup yellow cake mix (from reserve)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter

Directions:

Dessert:  

1. Mix cake mix (to break up clumps) (reserve 1 cup mix) and pat in bottom of 9x13 greased pan.  
2. Mix remaining dessert ingredients together and pour over mixture in pan.

Topping:  

1. Mix together all topping ingredients and sprinkle over top.  
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.

Marsha's Notes:

When I made this recipe, this is what it looked like.

Dry cake mix in the bottom of the pan.

Filling added, topping sprinkled, and put in the oven to bake.

Finished product.

It was good, but not exactly like the picture at the top of the recipe. I wanted to post these pictures for expectation in the future.

Funeral Potatoes

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Funeral Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 bag (24 oz.) frozen hash browns 
• 3 Tbl. melted butter  
• 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar
• 3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 2 Tbl melted butter
• 3 Tbl parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Either thaw hash browns, or allow for a longer cooking time.  
2. Place potatoes in a 9x13 pan.  
3. Pour 3 Tbl. melted butter over potatoes.  
4. Mix together in a separate bowl cream of chicken soup, sour cream, milk and sharp cheddar cheese.  Pour over potatoes, do not mix.  
5. In a separate bowl mix bread crumbs, 2 Tbl. melted butter and parmesan.  Sprinkle bread crumb mixture over potato mixture.  
6. Bake for about 30 minutes at 325 degrees or longer for frozen potatoes, or until potatoes are cooked and mixture is hot and bubbly.

"Boston Market" Sweet Potato Casserole

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

“Boston Market” Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

• 6 cups mashed sweet potatoes/squash 
• ¾ cup dark brown sugar 
• ½ cup heavy cream/milk
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• ¼ tsp. cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. salt  
• Pumpkin pie spice to taste
• 2 cups mini marshmallows
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 Tbl ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup cold butter

Directions:

1. Open squash and remove seeds.  Cut squash into large chunks and boil until tender.  
2. Spoon squash meat out of skin into a bowl, discard skins.  Or, use 6 cups pre-canned yams.  
3. Mash squash up in a mixer until smooth.  
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
5. Combine brown sugar, squash, milk/cream, butter, cinnamon, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in mixing bowl.  Beat until all is well combined.  Use as much cinnamon and pie spice as to your taste.  
6. Pour mixture into baking dish.  
7. In another bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon until well mixed.  Cut in cold butter until mixture is crumbly.  
8. Sprinkle top of squash with oatmeal streusel, and bake for 70-80 minutes, or until to beings to brown slightly.  
9. When you remove casserole from oven, immediately top with marshmallows.  Once marshmallows have melted, spread out slightly with knife.  Serve.

Marsha's Notes:

It has been a long time since I have made this particular recipe, but with 6 cups of yams, I would assume this goes into a 9x13 baking dish. 70-80 minutes seems like a long time compared to other recipes, so I would probably use a temperature probe and bake until the casserole reaches and internal temperature of 160 degrees to keep from over baking.

Sweet Potato Casserole

2025 Update:

I have a new and improved version of this recipe here: https://1brother2sisters.blogspot.com/2024/11/marshas-sweet-potato-casserole.html While very similar, my updated recipe calls for added cinnamon and salt in the base, and oats in the topping. Both recipes are yummy.

I asked a large group of friends what their favorite sweet potato casserole recipes were because there was this one Thanksgiving, years ago, when I remember having some fantastic sweet potatoes and I remember the lady saying, "Now these are about as close to pumpkin pie as you get without actually being pumpkin pie... you just need some whipped cream!" Oh man! Those were good! So, based on that request, I got several tried and true choices, but this one was my favorite! It's almost like cheating the system and getting two pieces of pie for Thanksgiving without anyone knowing!

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

• 4 cups mashed sweet potatoes
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten, room temperature

Topping:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• Optional marshmallows

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients (except things for topping) and place in 9x13 dish. 
2. For topping, mix ingredients and spread on potatoes. 
3. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. 
4. Optionally, add marshmallows in stripes and cook until brown and melted during the last 8 minutes or so of baking.

Marsha's Notes:

The lady that gave me this recipe said that sometimes she will add an extra 1/8-1/4 cup white sugar if things aren't sweet enough because not all sweet potatoes are the same.

Turkey In An Electric Roaster Oven

When Scott's parent's gave us part of a turkey breast to cook (because their turkeys are always HUGE so you can only cook part of the breast at a time!), I was at a loss as to what to do because I always let more experienced people cook turkey for holiday dinners and other occasions. But I thought it was about time I cooked one myself and it turned out pretty darn good! I even took pictures to send to my family!

Turkey In An Electric Roaster Oven

Ingredients:

• 1 large turkey breast
• cooking oil
• seasoning (salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, season salt, etc.)

Directions:

1. Oil the turkey breast and sprinkle with your desired amount of seasonings. 
2. Place prepared turkey breast on top or wire rack in the roaster oven (with handles up) and cover with lid (do not add any water to the bottom). 
3. Turn on roaster to 325 degrees. Turkey will self-baste if you don't lift the lid, so try not to lift the lid hardly at all during the cooking process. 
4. Final temperature should reach about 180 degrees in the thigh and 165 in the breast. Juices should run clear. 
5. When done, remove from roaster, cover with foil, and let rest for 20 minutes before cutting.

Marsha's Notes:

The general rule is 15 to 20 minutes per pound of turkey when cooking an unstuffed turkey. Roasting a stuffed turkey is no longer considered food-safe.

4-6 lb. breast= 1 hr 30 mins–2 hrs 15 mins= 165°F

• In 2024 I got a 5-6 lb breast on Thursday from the freezer at the store, put it on a plate in the fridge to thaw and cooked it on Monday. It took about two hours to cook at 325 degrees. My time table was this:
• Start preheating the roaster oven to 325 degrees at about 2:30 pm.
• Place the oiled and seasoned turkey into the roaster with the rack at about 2:45 pm.  Insert a thermometer into one of the biggest parts of the meat. Cover with lid. Leave the lid on and don't open while cooking.
• Cook until meat reaches 165 degrees (in this case for 5-6 lbs it was about 2 hours).
• Take lid off and turn the roaster off and let the turkey sit in the roaster for about 20 minutes to let the juices redistribute.
• If you aren't ready to eat for a bit, once the roaster is mostly cool, put the lid back on to keep the turkey warm but no longer cooking it.

Raspberry Jell-o Salad

My mother-in-law was the first to introduce me to this recipe. We call it a "salad" but really, it could totally pass as a dessert with all the Kool-Whip and cream cheese! Yum!!!! Also, my husband doesn't like walnuts because they give him canker sores, so he was super excited to discover that the crust is actually crushed up pretzels and NOT nuts. I have made this recipe more times than I can count. But when I do, it is always a hit! Enjoy!

Tip: The trickiest part is getting the Jell-o to start to set-up without getting over thick before you pour it over the cream cheese layer. You also need to account for enough time to let your Jell-o set before you can serve it, so it's best to make it first thing in the morning or the day before an event.

Marsha's Raspberry Jell-o Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• ¾ cup butter, melted
• 3 Tbl. sugar
• 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 (10 oz.) pkg. Cool Whip
• 1 (6 oz.) pkg. raspberry Jell-o
• 3 cups boiling water
• 2 (8 oz.) pkg. frozen raspberries

Directions:

1. Combine pretzels, butter and sugar together.  
2. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan and bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes.  
3. Cream together cream cheese and sugar.  Add pineapple and fold in Cool-Whip.  Spread on top of cooled pretzels.  
4. Mix together raspberry Jell-o, boiling water, and frozen raspberries.  Let cool and start to thicken.  Then pour thickened mixture over cream cheese layer.  
• If the Jell-o has not thickened enough, it will bleed and run into the cream cheese layer and not setup properly. You have to find a balance between it being too runny and too set-up that it ends up in clumps. I just periodically stir the Jell-o with a spoon to test the consistency, and when it is noticeably thicker but not clumping, that is when I pour it over the cream cheese.
5. Place in fridge to set-up completely.

Hot Rolls

I could have sworn this recipe was already on here, but I guess it's not! So, it's about stinking time I shared my favorite roll recipe. Years ago, my step-mom gave me a cookbook full of recipes from her coworkers, and this recipe for "hot rolls" was in there. We LOVE it!!! It makes huge, fluffy rolls. I pull it out when asked to bring rolls for Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

Marsha's Hot Rolls

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups water, hottest you get from tap
• 6 Tbsp. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. oil
• 1 Tbsp. yeast
• 5 cups flour
• 2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Mix eggs, water, sugar and oil together.   
2. Sprinkle yeast on top of mixture, stir slightly, let sit for 10-15 minutes or until yeast is foamy.  
3. Sprinkle enough flour on top of yeast to protect it from salt.  
4. Sprinkle salt on top of the flour, then sprinkle more flour on top of the salt.  
5. Mix in then add the rest of the flour until dough is not sticky.  
6. Let raise for one hour.  
7. Roll out on floured surface and cut in to rolls.  Place rolls in two greased pans and let raise.  
8. Cook for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Marsha's Notes:

These rolls are HUGE if you use one 9x13 pan, so I use one 9x13 and then another smaller pan to make my rolls. They still come out softball-sized, so you could totally do rolls even half this size and make two 9x13 pans, I would imagine.

The dough comes together pretty easily if you use the dough hook on your stand mixer.

Here is is out of the bowl after its first rise.

I added about a 1/2 cup of flour to help keep the dough from sticking to my hands while I form the rolls.

Each ball of dough is about 100 grams.

Depending on how much extra flour you add to the dough and how heavy you make your balls will determine how many rolls you get. Getting 15-20 is pretty typical. This is what the balls look like before you do the second rise and then bake.

Marsha's Favorite Jam Recipe

(From 2016 with 2025 updates.) I decided to document my current favorite way to make jam because I have tried different ways and had mixed results in the past. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's runny, sometimes it's bubbly (???!!!), etc. But, I have made three kinds of jam this summer using the same technique and so far they have all turned out fantastic. To the point that Scott even said, "I think you have mastered jam." Yay! So, here goes.

Homemade Jam

(Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackberry) 

Ingredients:

• 4 pints (or 30-32 oz.) berries (equals 3 1/4 cups crushed berries), washed and debris removed (for strawberries, quarter the berries for easier mashing)
• 1 box MCP Pectin
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
• 4 1/2 cups sugar (added later, see recipe)
• 1 cup corn syrup (added later, see recipe)
• For storage of the jam, I use five 16 oz. (2 cup) containers

Directions:

1. Crush fruit to your desired consistency.
• I like chunks of fruit in my jam, so I used a potato masher for raspberries and blackberries. Sometimes strawberries are harder to crush with a potato masher, so with larger berries I will quarter them and then use an immersion blender sparingly to blend some of the fruit, while still leaving some bigger pieces. 
2. Gradually mix crushed fruit with pectin and lemon juice. 
• One time I messed up at this step and starting adding my corn syrup as well, but in the end, the jam turned out just fine. However, technically, you add the sugar AND the corn syrup later in the process.
3. Let sit for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. 
4. Mix in corn syrup (according to the package, this is supposed to help with crystals forming during freezing). 
5. Slowly add sugar. 
6. Pour into containers, cover with lids, and let sit on counter for 24 hours. Freeze or use immediately.
• The jam should start to thicken within a short period of time (an hour or less) so be sure to put it in your containers and not leave it sitting in the mixing bowl for very long.

Marsha's Tips:

Without knowing for sure, I imagine part of my jam-making success was strictly following the "stir every 5 minutes for 30 minutes" pectin step. It sounds like a pain, but it made GREAT jam.

Fruit Container Measurements-

• Strawberries: Currently, our store sells strawberries in 16 oz. containers. A flat of strawberries is eight 16 oz. containers, which will need four boxes of pectin, an entire 32 oz. bottle of corn syrup, 18 cups of sugar, and 1 cup of lemon juice (about half of a 15 oz. bottle). It will make about twenty 2 cup containers of jam.
• If you wanted a single batch of jam using only one box of pectin, then you would only need two of the 16 oz. containers of strawberries and not an entire flat. You would end up with about five 2 cup containers of jam.

16 oz.

This shows what supplies I bought and had on hand for making jam, including the flat of strawberries (one more larger bottle of corn syrup not pictured).

• Blackberries and Raspberries: Both of these currently come in 6 oz. containers. You need five or six of them to make a batch of jam that uses up one entire box of pectin, plus about 1/2 of a smaller 16 oz. bottle of corn syrup, along with 4.5 cups sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice.
• I bought six 6 oz. containers of each kind of berries (see in above picture) and ended up with more like 4 cups of crushed fruit in the end, so five would have been closer to the recommended amount of fruit per package of pectin... but in the end, it seemed to turn out just fine even with a little extra fruit. The blackberry seemed to tighten up nicely, and the raspberry was runnier, but still fine. If it turns out problematic after freezing and then thawing the jam, I will try to remember to come back and report.

6 oz.

6 oz.

Here are some pictures to show my process:

Here are all six containers of blackberries, washed and ready to go.
I set this strainer full of berries inside of one of my biggest mixing bowls and filled the entire thing up with water so I could stir the berries around and get the bits of leaves and things to float to the top of the water so I could pick out any debris. Initially, if any of the berries appeared to have any mold on them, I removed the moldy berries and then added just a touch of white vinegar (2 Tbl to about 1/4 cup) to the water to help sanitize the remaining berries. I would let the berries sit in the vinegar water mixture for just a couple minutes. Then I pulled the strainer with the berries out of the water in the larger bowl and rinsed everything again off with my faucet sprayer and let sit and drain for a minute or so. 

Clean berries crushed with a potato masher.

As you can see, six packages of berries made about 4 cups crushed, so five probably would have been closer to the recommended 3 1/4 cups berries. So in the future, I will use 5 packages.

Raspberries washed and ready to go.

Crushed, these also made about 4 cups, similar to the blackberries, so again, I would only get five containers next time.

Strawberries getting their final rinse before being stemmed and quartered. Because there are so many strawberries, I did them two 16 oz. containers at a time, washing, rinsing, stemming, and mashing in batches.

Some of the berries I started to slice and then realized that I didn't need to go to that much work if I was just going to mash them, so I quartered the rest of the flat instead.

Mashed with a potato masher. There are still lots of big chunks that were hard to mash up very well this way, so I decided to try the immersion blender instead, which worked well. 

You can see here that two containers made about 3 1/4 cups almost perfectly, so that is what you need to use one box of pectin.

Sporadically using the immersion blend to get some of the larger pieces chopped up, without blending the entire thing because I like some pieces of fruit to remain intact in the final product (you could probably also use a regular countertop blender for this, using the pulse feature so you can control how blended up everything gets).
After trying the potato masher with that first batch of strawberries and deciding that was too much work, I just added my quartered strawberries directly to this red bowl and processed them entirely with the immersion blender moving forward.

Here is the entire flat done. But this bowl is too small to hold the strawberries AND all the sugar and other things to make the jam, so I had to transfer it to another REALLY BIG container (but this container is plastic and I would be afraid to use the immersion blender in this blue tub, so I would still use the red bowl for mashing the berries in the future because it's ceramic).

Berries all mashed and ready for pectin and lemon juice. Then comes stirring every 5 minutes for 30 minutes before adding the corn syrup and sugar later. I found that tucking the handle of my whisk into the handle space of the blue tub kept my whisk from falling into the strawberry mixture between stirrings.

After the pectin has processed and all the other ingredients are added, it's time to divide everything into containers. This worked really well with my large canning funnel and a soup ladle. Between the jam being finished and when I put them in the containers, I stopped to eat dinner and was surprised by how much some of the jam had thickened up already, so don't wait too long to get it all divided up in the containers and ready to sit for the night.

All divided! As you can see, I got 5 raspberry, 5 blackberry, and 19 strawberry. If I had divided things more precisely, I probably would have gotten 20 containers of strawberry.

Lids cleaned and marked, ready for the jam to sit out overnight before freezing.

These are the supplies I had leftover:
I had a partial bottle of corn syrup in the house, so I bought both a full 32 oz. and a 16 oz. bottle for this project. I used all of the full 32 oz. bottle (for the strawberries) AND 16 oz. bottle (for the raspberries and blackberries) of corn syrup, leaving me with that partial 32 oz. bottle that I had from before.
I had a partial bottle of lemon juice (about 1/2 full) so I bought a new 15 oz. bottle. I used all of my partial bottle of lemon juice and part of the new bottle I purchased. It should take less than a 15 oz bottle to make 6 boxes of pectin into jam, just for reference.
I had one old box of pectin, plus I bought eight more boxes because I wasn't sure how much I needed. It turns out for all this jam I needed 6 boxes, so I had three leftover.
For sugar, I have a huge storage tub of sugar in the basement that I dip out of to fill my kitchen sugar container, and I had to fill my container twice from my large supply to get all of this jam made. In total it was 27 cups of sugar. My kitchen container probably holds a 4-5 lb bag of sugar, so if I was buying smaller bags of sugar for this project I would get at least two... maybe three.

I also realized that some of the members of my family live alone now and probably won't want an entire larger container of jam, so I bought some of these smaller containers and dipped out of a couple of the bigger ones so I could give out smaller portions to anyone who wanted it. I would have needed 12 total smaller containers to use up all three of those larger containers. The larger containers are 2 cups (16 oz.) and the smaller are 1/2 cup (4 oz.).

Notes from before 2025: The history of figuring out pectin-

• As I mentioned, I have had mixed results in the past, so this time I even took a picture of the box of pectin I used because not all pectin seems to be the same. They even have different kinds of Sure-Jell pectin, one of which is clearly labeled for lower sugar jam recipes, but two of them have different names with no real indication on the box what the difference is; Sure-Jell vs. MCP. 
• I Googled it, and it appears I am not the only one confused. Here is what one lady wrote, "I went to the Albertsons, and they had the Surejell right next to MCP pectin, and I got very confused. MCP is made by Surejell. Surejell is 1.75 oz at $2.99 a box. The MCP is 2.0 oz for $2.49 a box. More for less? I called Kraft and asked about the differences, and they said the formulas were different. Sure enough, I checked the back of the boxes, and Surejell lists dextrose, citric acid, then pectin. MCP lists dextrose, pectin and then citric acid. I have my formula for jam dialed in, so I didn't want to "mess with success" and switch now, with just one batch to go, but now I'm wondering what, if any, are the differences in the products?" Even the Kraft website (who makes Sure-Jell) lists the same description for it's Sure-Jell pectin and it's Sure-Jell MCP pectin, with the one difference that says, "MCP is available on the west coast." 
• Okay? I live on the west coast, and the regular Sure-Jell is available alongside the MCP, so why do our stores carry both? Any who... So here's the one I liked:

• I made jam successfully, following these steps, with strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I imagine you could combine and do a mixed berry with the same success. I am also going to try it with peach in the fall and will try to make a note if peaches worked the same.