Strawberry Vanilla Jam - cooking recipe

Ingredients

8 cups sliced strawberries
6 cups sugar
1/3 cup bottled lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 vanilla beans
1/2 teaspoon butter

Preparation

Place the strawberries in a large stockpot and crush them slightly with a potato masher to break them up a little and release some of their juice. Simmer the strawberries over medium low heat for 10 minutes.
Add the lemon juice, vanilla extract, seeds scraped from the vanilla beans, (you may also add the vanilla bean pods if desired after you have scraped the seeds from them - just remember to take them out before you start filling your jars!) butter and sugar and stir well until sugar is dissolved.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat and boil hard for 20 minutes, stirring frequently (be careful, this has a tendency to spit at you and boiling sugar burns are unpleasant!), until it has reduced and thickened a bit. You may test for gel at this point if deisred.
Remove from heat and stir constantly for 3 minutes to redistribute the fruit evenly through the jam and prevent it from floating to the top of your finished product.
Ladle jam into hot half pint (8 oz.) jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Process jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes - adjusting for altitude.