This recipe will be written out a bit differently because it’s all about the ratios
Time: 24 hours
Ingredients:
- Whatever fruit you’re using for the jam cut into a smaller dice depending on how chunky you want the jam, measured by weight in grams – soft fruits like berries, ripe stone fruits, etc are best for jam
- Sugar, measured by weight in grams
- 1-2 lemons depending on how much fruit you’re using
Directions: Prep your fruit for the jam. If you want it to be quite chunky, either leave the fruit whole or dice it a bit bigger. If you want it to be smoother, cut the fruit fairly small. Once the fruit is prepped, take the pot you’re going to use to cook the jam and place it on a kitchen scale, being sure to tare the scale to get rid of the weight of the pot. Add your fruit to the pot and take note of how much the fruit weighs in grams.
Next you will add the sugar. A typical ratio is going to be 2 parts fruit, 1 part sugar, but I’m always mindful of how sweet the fruit is while adding the sugar. Generally, I’m going to do slightly less than 1/2 the weight in sugar. For example, if my fruit weighs 500 grams, I would do closer to 200 grams instead of 250 grams so it’s not overwhelmingly sweet. Be sure to tare the scale again before you add the sugar.
Cut your lemon(s) in half and juice them directly into the pot with the fruit and sugar. After they’re juiced, you can add the lemon itself and give everything a stir. The lemon will help the pectin develop but won’t give the jam an overwhelming lemon flavor. If you want there to be more lemon, add an extra one or zest it and add that in too before cutting in half to juice.
Give everything a big stir and cover, putting the pot in the fridge to let the pectin develop and to let everything become juicy. You want to leave the mixture in the fridge for at least 4 hours but you’ll have a better result if you leave it overnight or for a full 24 hours.
Once the fruit has sat, remove it from the fridge and take it to the stove. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat and continue to cook stirring often so the jam doesn’t burn, until the mixture reaches a temperature of 225 degrees. At this point, you should notice a distinct change in the mixture – it should be nice and thick and really resemble jam.
Let cool slightly and add to a clean jar or restaurant container – anything you have with a nice tight seal. Remember, this is not canned/preserved so you need to keep this in the fridge where it should keep for at least a couple of weeks.
Notes: You can do this with whatever type of fruit you’d like! So far, I’ve made cherry and peach jam but am so excited to give more fruit a try. You can also have fun with it and do different combinations or add herbs or spices to give it depth.