A jam you can make every season
Our stonefruit surplus has had the team busy in the kitchen, whipping up every kind of stone fruit recipe you can imagine. One simple and quick way to celebrate seasonal fruit is through jamming – a technique we use each season to ensure no fruit goes to waste!
Kim has a few basic principles for good jam-making. It is a pleasurable simple thing to do with any excess fruit in season and a lovely gift
- Never make more than 2kg of fruit into jam at one time.
- Include a little under-ripe fruit for added pectin to help your jam set.
- Bulkier fruit like plums and apricots benefit from being cooked in a little water for a few minutes, creating a fruit paste, before adding the sugar.
- Fiddley seeds like plums and cherries are easily removed after cooking.
- Once the sugar and fruit are combined, cook together over the hottest heat.
- Use a large thick-bottomed pan.
- A little knob of butter at the end of cooking will dissipate any frothy residue on the top of the jam.
- Test a little jam in a saucer to see if it is set to your liking
- There are miles of info online about sterilising if you want to be sure your jam will keep for several months or more.
Ingredients
- 1kg fresh fruit (Kim used figs, peaches and apricots for this summer version)
- 1kg castor sugar
- 1 lemon
Method
- Peel and cut your fruit of choice.
- Bring the fruit and sugar with the halved lemon to the boil.
- Cook over high heat for ten minutes until you reach a jammy consistency (return to the heat for a few more minutes if it hasn’t yet reached ‘jammy’ consistency).
- When you are sure it is set, pour it into hot sterilised jars and place the lid on firmly.
- Let cool, then store in the fridge or a cool dark space.
