Food and Cooking

This looks horrifying. Please don't eat this 😂

This doesn’t look right.

Normally, the fruit should separate out on top.

How much sugar did you add? The preservative here is sugar, and the mechanism of preservation is reducing the water activity so much that nothing else can grow. The resulting sugar jelly should be much denser than the fruit.

If you fruit sinks, the specific gravity of the jam might not be high enough.

Doesn't look like it was cooked for very long or with much sugar. If theres too much water and not enough sugar you don't get the preservation effect.

I don’t know man, but I sure as hell wouldn’t eat it

I make jam several times a year and I never had this kind of deposit. I would throw the jam, I'm too young to die from food poisoning (like botulism, if there's not enough sugar).

Trust your nose and your tongue. Smell it, taste it; if it smells and tastes fine, then it's probably fine. (Strawberries are rather acidic and jam often includes lemon/lime juice, so the odds that it's something harmful are rather small.)

That said if I had to take a guess: you didn't skim off the foam while you were cooking the jam, and that foam jelled itself. If that's correct it's safe to eat.

I've made a lot of strawberry jam in my day, never had it settle with deposits. I'd say toss it. Can you share your recipe?