Do you have to can jam, or can you keep it in the fridge or freezer?

You only have to can jam if you want to keep it at room temperature. Jam stored in the refrigerator or freezer needs no canner at all: refrigerator and freezer jams keep usually up to 3 weeks in the fridge or up to a year frozen. Jam processed in a boiling water or steam canner keeps on a cool, dark shelf, with best quality for about a year [1]. What you can't do is cook jam, seal it in jars without processing and leave it in the cupboard. This page compares the three routes so you can pick one for your first batch and buy only what that route needs.

The three ways to keep jam, side by side

The left two columns trade shelf space for simplicity. The right column trades an afternoon of setup for jars you can stack in a cupboard and give away without asking anyone to find room in their freezer.

Refrigerator jam: the smallest commitment

Refrigerator jam is any jam you make and simply chill. It can be a tested canning recipe that you decide not to process, or a small batch made for the week. National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) guidance groups refrigerator jams with freezer jams: store them in the refrigerator, where they usually keep up to 3 weeks [1].

This route suits a first try with a pint of berries, a test of a new fruit, or a cook who eats jam quickly. It doesn't suit a large harvest, because three weeks arrives fast. Gelatin-set spreads belong here too and have their own limit: USDA says to refrigerate them, use them within 4 weeks, and never process or freeze them [4]. Refrigerator jam covers small batches in detail.

Freezer jam: fresh flavor, a year of keeping

Freezer jam is mixed from crushed fruit, sugar and pectin with little or no cooking. A typical tested recipe from NC State Extension stirs the fruit with sugar, adds pectin that has been boiled in water for 1 minute, fills containers with 1/2 inch of headspace, and lets them stand at room temperature for 24 hours to set before they go into the refrigerator or freezer [2]. After that it keeps up to 3 weeks refrigerated or up to a year frozen [2].

Once you thaw and open a container, keep it in the refrigerator and use it within 3 to 4 weeks, NCHFP's figure [1]. The NC State recipe sheet is more cautious and says to use an opened jar within a few days [2]. Follow NCHFP, because that is its dedicated storage guidance; the shorter window is the safer habit for a jar that is opened often or made with little sugar. How long freezer jam keeps is the home for those numbers.

Freezer jam does not keep at room temperature. Left out, it "will mold or ferment in a short time" [2].

Canned jam: an afternoon of setup for a year on the shelf

Canning means filling hot jam into canning jars, putting on two-piece lids and holding the jars in boiling water (or pure steam) for the time the recipe gives. The heat kills the yeasts and molds that would otherwise spoil the jam, and drives air out so the lid seals as it cools.

For USDA's jam and jelly recipes the process is short: 5 minutes for half-pints or pints at up to 1,000 feet, in jars sterilized beforehand, and longer at higher elevations [4]. If you skip sterilizing, the jars need at least a full 10 minutes in boiling water, plus your altitude adjustment [5]. How long to process jam sets out both systems.

You can process in a boiling water canner or in an atmospheric steam canner. Penn State Extension says a steam canner works for fruit jams and jellies when you use a tested boiling water recipe, keep the same processing time, start timing at a full column of steam, and stay within 45 minutes including the altitude adjustment [6]. See Steam canning jam.

What doesn't count as canning

Older shortcuts still circulate: pouring hot jam into jars and letting the lids seal on their own, turning jars upside down, or topping jam with melted paraffin. University of New Hampshire Extension lists unprocessed hot jam left to seal on its own as a sign of an unsafe recipe [7]. University of Georgia Extension says paraffin is no longer an acceptable choice, and USDA advises discarding the whole jar if mold appears [8]. A jar that sealed by itself on the counter is a refrigerator jar. Paraffin, inverting jars and other old methods explains what changed.

When the canner is worth it

Canning pays for its setup when one or more of these is true for you:

1. You have more fruit than freezer space. A flat of strawberries or a backyard apricot tree can fill a freezer in an afternoon. Jars on a shelf don't compete with dinner.
2. You give jam away. A canned jar can travel, sit on a counter and be opened months later. A freezer jar has to be kept cold the whole way.
3. You like a cooked jam. Long-cooked apricot, plum and grape preserves taste like themselves only after cooking.
4. You want to sell. Cottage food laws are written around shelf-stable foods, and many exclude products that need refrigeration or freezing. Freezer jam is often on the excluded list; check yours on Preserves cottage food laws often exclude.

It isn't worth it yet if you are making one small batch to see whether you like the work, if your fruit comes a pint at a time, or if you mostly want the bright flavor of fresh berries. Those cooks are better served by the freezer.

Which route suits a first batch

If you have never made jam, either of these is a sound start:

• Freezer jam, if you want the lowest stakes. You need a bowl, a pot to boil the pectin, a box of freezer or regular pectin with its insert recipe, and freezer-safe containers. Nothing has to seal. How to make freezer jam walks through it.
• A canned added-pectin jam, if you want shelf jars from day one. Choose a tested recipe that uses commercial pectin, because added-pectin recipes are timed by the clock rather than judged by eye, which takes much of the guesswork out of the set. How to make jam, start to finish follows a full batch.

Either way, start with a tested recipe written for the method you picked. A canning recipe can always be refrigerated instead of processed. A freezer jam recipe can never be canned, because it was never developed or tested for the canner.

Getting set up for the route you chose

Once you know which route you're taking, you know your shopping list. Equipment for your first batch separates what the canner route needs from what the refrigerator and freezer routes can skip, and Recipes you can trust helps you find a recipe written for your method.

References

1. National Center for Home Food Preservation, Storing Home Canned Jams and Jellies, October 2005. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jams-jellies-general-information/storing-home-canned-jams-and-jellies/
2. NC State Extension, Sampson County Center, Knowles, Freezer Jam, June 13, 2022. https://sampson.ces.ncsu.edu/news/freezer-jam/
3. University of Georgia Extension, Andress, Steps in Processing Jams and Jellies (FDNS-E-37-4), rev. May 2019. https://l-webserver-prod.fcs.uga.edu/docs/FDNS-E-37-4.pdf
4. USDA and National Center for Home Food Preservation, Complete Guide to Home Canning, Guide 7: Preparing and Canning Jams and Jellies, rev. July 2015. https://nchfp.uga.edu/papers/guide/GUIDE07_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf
5. National Center for Home Food Preservation, Do I need to pre-sterilize my jars before canning?, May 21, 2014. https://nchfp.uga.edu/blog/do-i-need-to-pre-sterilize-my-jars-before-canning
6. Penn State Extension, Zepp, How to Use an Atmospheric Steam Canner, updated March 17, 2025. https://extension.psu.edu/how-to-use-an-atmospheric-steam-canner
7. University of New Hampshire Extension, Hamilton, Questions to Ask Before Trying a Canning Recipe, February 20, 2023. https://extension.unh.edu/node/16922
8. University of Georgia Extension, Andress, Preserving Food: Processing Jams and Jellies (FDNS-E-37-1), rev. June 2011. https://openscholar.uga.edu/record/23661/files/FDNS-E-37-1.pdf