How to Make Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam in Canada (Bernardin Method)

Strawberry-rhubarb is the jam most Canadian households make first, and for good reason: the rhubarb carries the pectin and acid the strawberries lack, so the batch is forgiving as well as good.

This guide follows the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving (ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5), which publishes Strawberry Rhubarb Jam at page 30 as a variation on the Saskatoon Berry Jam on that same page — the book’s own box says to follow the Saskatoon method and use the quantities the variation gives. These are their figures, not ours. Adjust the processing time for your altitude with the altitude adjustments article.

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Why the pairing works

Strawberries on their own are tricky:

• Low in pectin — the structural fibre that makes jam gel
• Low in acid — pectin needs an acidic environment to set
• High in volatile aroma — long cooking drives the strawberry flavour off

Rhubarb on its own works fine for jam (see our rhubarb jam post) but is tart enough that most people want sugar dialled up.

Pair them and the rhubarb brings pectin and acid while the strawberries bring sweetness and brightness. The tested recipe uses them in equal volumes — 2 cups of each — which is worth noting because the widely-repeated Canadian figure is two parts strawberries to one part rhubarb. That two-to-one is not what the book publishes, and this page used to give it.

What you need

From the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving (ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5), page 30. Makes about six 250 mL jars.

• 2 cups (500 mL) crushed hulled strawberries
• 2 cups (500 mL) chopped rhubarb — stalks only
• 4 tbsp (60 mL) bottled lemon juice
• 6 tbsp (90 mL) Ball Classic Fruit Pectin, or 1 package Bernardin Original Pectin
• 5½ cups (1.375 L) granulated sugar
• Bernardin 250 mL regular-mouth jars, fresh SNAP lids, bands
• Standard canning kit — water-bath canner, jar lifter, headspace tool, funnel, ladle, large heavy pot, potato masher (which canner to buy)

On the pectin package size: we are not printing a gram weight. The book lists the Bernardin option as “1 package (1.75 oz/57 g)”, and those two figures do not agree — 1.75 oz is 49.6 g, while 57 g is 2 oz. Rather than reprint a number we cannot reconcile, this page gives the Ball measure the book states in the same line, 6 tbsp (90 mL), and otherwise says one package. Read your own box.

The figures on this page come from the edition we hold — ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5, 448 pages. Different editions of the Complete Book carry different figures, so verify the process time against your own edition before you start.

Corrected 17 September 2026: this page previously published its own quantities — about 5 cups of strawberries to 2.5 cups of rhubarb, five to five and a half cups of sugar, a seven-jar yield, a two-to-one fruit ratio and a permitted band of anywhere from three-to-one to one-to-one. The bottled lemon juice is the one that matters: the tested recipe requires 4 tbsp (60 mL) and this page listed 2 tbsp as optional — an acid the recipe requires, marked as a choice, at under half the quantity. None of the other figures traced to a source either, and a second sources: line cited a “Bernardin Home Canning — Strawberry rhubarb jam reference” with no URL and nothing behind it. The Complete Book publishes Strawberry Rhubarb Jam at page 30 and that recipe is what this page now gives. A cold-plate set test (page 19’s tests are for spreads made without added pectin), a claim that the pairing lets you cut the pectin, a two-and-a-half-to-one or three-to-one fix for a tart batch, and a freezer-jam variation with its own invented quantities and an unsourced three-week thawed window have all been removed.

The leaf rule (important if you’re new to rhubarb)

The method Bernardin publishes (page 30)

The book’s own box on page 30 says: for each of the jams that follow, follow the method for Saskatoon Berry Jam but use the quantity of fruit and other ingredients specified in the variation. So the method below is the Saskatoon method with this variation’s quantities.

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids. Fill the canner with enough water to cover the jars by 2.5 cm (1 inch) and bring to a simmer. Keep 250 mL jars warm in it.
2. Prep the rhubarb. Trim the ends, cut the leaves off and discard them, and chop the stalks. Measure 2 cups (500 mL).
3. Prep the strawberries. Wash, drain, hull, and crush with a potato masher — crushed, not puréed. Measure 2 cups (500 mL).
4. In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine the fruit and 4 tbsp (60 mL) bottled lemon juice. Whisk in the pectin until dissolved.
5. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
6. Add 5½ cups (1.375 L) sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
7. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off foam.
8. Ladle into hot jars leaving 0.5 cm (¼ inch) headspace. Remove air bubbles and top up with hot jam if the headspace has dropped — this is a jam, not a jelly, so the bubble step is part of the method.
9. Wipe rims, apply lids fingertip-tight, and lower the jars into the canner so they are covered by at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) of water.
10. Process 10 minutes at altitudes up to 305 m, adjusted for your altitude band per our altitude-adjustments guide. Start timing when the water returns to a full rolling boil.
11. Remove the canner lid and wait 5 minutes before lifting the jars out. Cool 24 hours undisturbed, then check the seals.

There is no gel stage test on this route. The gel stage tests on page 19 are for soft spreads made without added pectin. Here the 1-minute hard boil after the sugar is what sets the jam.

If you would rather not use a canner

Freezer jam is a different product with a different pectin, and it has its own page: freezer jam. This page used to carry a freezer-jam variation with quantities of our own and a three-week refrigerated window after thawing that was attributed to nobody. Follow the freezer-jam page and the box in front of you instead.

Storage (water-bath canned)

• Cool, dark, dry place — pantry or basement shelf
• Best quality 12 months — Bernardin’s guidance is to use home-canned food within one year. That is a quality window, not an expiry: the jar is as safe as the process made it. Colour, flavour and texture fade.
• After opening: refrigerate, use within one week (HealthLink BC)
• Always check before eating for off odours, foam, or mould

Corrected 31 Aug 2026: this page previously gave an after-opening window of 3–4 weeks. HealthLink BC File #22 publishes one week for any opened home-canned container — “Once the container has been opened, refrigerate leftovers, and use within one week.” Our longer figure was never attributed to anyone. The shelf life of the sealed jar is unchanged.

Things that can go wrong

• Jam didn’t set. The usual causes are a hard boil shorter than the full minute after the sugar went in, fruit that was never measured to 2 cups of each, or sugar cut from the recipe. Full troubleshooting and salvage paths.
• A jar didn’t seal. The 24-hour rule applies.
• SNAP lid reused (or you’re tempted to). Don’t. Single-use only.
• Jam too tart. We are not publishing a re-balanced ratio for this — the tested recipe is equal volumes, and changing it is changing a tested recipe. A spoonful of honey stirred into the finished batch is a serving change rather than a recipe change.
• Mushy strawberry pieces. Normal in any cooked strawberry jam. Slightly under-ripe berries hold their shape better.

When to make this versus plain strawberry vs plain rhubarb

Want	Make
First-ever jam, most forgiving	Strawberry-rhubarb (this post)
Pure strawberry flavour	Strawberry jam
Tart, less sweet	Rhubarb jam
No canner needed	Freezer jam (any of the above as a freezer variation)

Next steps

• Read the water-bath canning pillar for the broader method.
• SNAP lids reuse rules before you start.
• Altitude adjustments for the minute math.
• Garlic scape pickles (late June) and dill pickles (July).