Unfortunately, I'm not great at keeping track of my recipes, but I did make an Orange Strawberry Preserve last summer. I tend toward small batches and probably used four cups of strawberries and three or four navel oranges for a single batch/pot. For some of the batch, I added some fatalii pepper powder (added immediately prior to jarring) and dark chocolate (grated and added immediately prior to jarring).

I used strawberries from my garden and some organic navels (very juicy and sweet) that I purchased at the store. I chose organic because I knew I wanted to use the peel directly in the preserve; I did not zest but cut the oranges into very thin slices and added them with the strawberries (whole/cored). I always add lemon juice from whole lemons, even with the orange's acidity. Strawberries are such low acid fruits that you want to be generous with acid, and lemon goes well with the orange and strawberry flavors in any case.

After that, I added the sugar (with this particular fruit combo, I probably used a 2/3-1 cup of sugar per cup of strawberry) and cooked the strawberries with orange slices at low/medium until the sugar dissolved, then increased the temp to bring to a boil. Likely, I allowed the lemon halves to cook with the other fruit. I reduced the heat once boiling to a low and cooked for about ten minutes and let it cool before covering and placing in the refrigerator overnight. (The fruit will have a pleasant translucency after it cooks. Also, I leave my fruit whole; if you want more of a jam-like texture, you may be able to reduce your sugar, as it should set easier.)

The next day, I separated the fruit from the syrup and brought the syrup up to setting/gelling stage. (If I used homemade pectin, I would have added it to the syrup at this time.) Only then would I have added the fruit, discarding the lemon halves at this time. Since I like the fruit to be as whole as possible in the final product, I try to cook it as little as possible. Again, I brought up the full preserves to a gelling stage and then jarred and processed in a BWB.

I may have used homemade orange pectin; I'm sorry--I can't remember if I did. (I use Linda Ziedrich's recipe.) I do use traditional white sugar and no added commercial pectin, so I'm not sure if this will be helpful since you are looking for a low-sugar recipe. This recipe/method is decidedly not, but I think I would still recommend slicing the orange instead of pulping it.

I'm not sure what the texture would be like if you just pulped it up front, and I do like having the peel present. If you don't like peel, then definitely don't include it. Slicing it helps you maintain the "integrity" of the fruit. If the fruit is in poor condition, you may not be able to slice it. In that case, if it were me, I might just use the juice instead or use the fruit to make pectin and then do an Orange Jelly with Strawberries.

Good luck!

Interesting post WW! Sounds like you sort of made an old fashioned preserve type condiment rather than a more traditional jam. Sounds yummy and beautiful too. I might actually try that, since I do both strawberry preserves and orange marmalade that way. However, part of me is bone lazy and wants to use up this box of pectin I have in the cupboard, lol!

Oh, and they are navels with a lot of pith so I'm hesitant to slice them because I think all that pith will make for a bitter product if I leave it on the oranges. These oranges are slightly dried out, which is why I'm thinking of just zesting them and using the pulp.

Pink, I rarely make jams and instead make preserves (or jellies) using Christine Ferber and Linda Z's methods as a base.

I do not tend to use old fruit, but I would personally use the juice only. If you like a pulp-like texture, you may be fine just blending with your strawberries with the pulp. I'm not a big fan of that texture, so I'm biased. I would definitely add acid to the jam, in spite of using a low-sugar pectin add-on.

Well that was a bust. I went to the store and even though they were on sale quite cheap, the strawberries looked so awful I couldn't bring myself to buy them. At least a third of the fruit I would have had to cut away, so really no bargain. Still not sure what I'll do with those three oranges . . .

Cook them with duck or pork.