![Any Fruit Jam](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/08/07/dining/07JAMGUIDE3/07JAMGUIDE3-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Tomato Jam
![Tomato Jam](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/07/07/dining/tomato-jam/tomato-jam-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes, plus chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
- 1½pounds good ripe tomatoes (Roma are best), cored and coarsely chopped
- 1cup sugar
- 2tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger
- 1teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛teaspoon ground cloves
- 1teaspoon salt
- 1jalapeño or other peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced, or red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste
Preparation
- Step 1
Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan, Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.
- Step 2
Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool and refrigerate until ready to use; this will keep at least a week.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Folks,
You may want to check out a pectin called Pomona's Universal Pectin. It differs from "normal" pectins in that it does not need any sugar to make the jam. The pectin is from citrus skins. It uses Calcium (provided as the catalyst). Find it on amazon. We are reducing sugar intake (typically 50 to 85% in jams). This makes a very good jam. For a light sweetness, we use maple syrup or honey. You can also use artificial sweeteners. Jams actually taste fruity. Highly recommend.
Nice flavor but too much sugar. I would start with 1/4 cup and add up to 1/2 cup as needed. I also put 1 chopped yellow pepper and 1/2 chopped red onion into it.
When I am too lazy to put much effort into dinner, I toast some bread, spread this jam on top, then scramble an egg with hot pepper flakes and parmesan cheese and put that on top also.
Halve the sugar, half again the cooking time.
Cook until a path scraped across the bottom doesn't fill in.
Made just under two half-pints, jars preheated at 325° for 15 minutes to seal.
I have made a large batch or two of this every year for the last 4 years, reduce the sugar, increase the lime juice and ginger, use jalapeño, serrano or habanero peppers and cook it down in an electric skillet on low to reduce the need to stir and the risk of scorching. Taste. I do a hot water bath as for other jams and give as gifts with friends asking when they will receive another jar of jam. Is very good in chicken/turkey sandwiches, pork sausage patties and biscuits and seasoning stir fry
Check out the "Food in Jars" blog - she does not advise canning recipes that have not been specifically tested for canning; however, she also has a tomato jam recipe on the current blog, and in her archive/cookbook. My gut says this one would be fine; but check first.
www.foodinjars.com
With crackers and sharp cheese!
You can make this recipe and then freeze it in small amounts. Thaws just great when someone comes over.
Used 6 lbs of tomatoes, so quadrupled the recipe with two exceptions: 1) Only added 2 t of salt rather than 4 (and it was kosher, not table salt). 2) I used 2 c white sugar and 1 cup dark brown sugar for a total of 3 c of sugar, rather than 4 c (since other users remarked it was too sweet).
Simmered on low heat for a good 6 hours or so, until it had reduced by just over half. Absolutely scrumptious. Ended up with approx 5 c of jam (40 oz.)
I've made this several times now and the stated directions are best. When I tried halving the sugar, the jam tasted too much like marinara. 75 minutes was just about right for cooking time if you cook at a medium temp. I guess the cooking time could be shorter if you have drier tomatoes or cook on high, but my tomatoes were straight from the garden and full of moisture.
Love a nice tomato jam for spreading on crackers with creamy goat cheese - fantastic appetizer. Also good with any roasted or barbecued meat. Try it on burgers instead of ketchup.
Here's a recipe that's great for safe canning as well as links to a couple of other great tomato jams (of which this is one!). http://www.gettystewart.com/tomato-jam/
My guess is that the larger amount of sugar is needed to preserve. Most fruit jams call for a sugar amount that is 3/4 of the fruit amount. Perhaps this recipe would last more than a week.......
This has been a stand=by recipe for years. I can it, processing for 20 minutes, 1/4 inch headspace. Love it.
I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup upon reading the other notes and I am glad I did.
I tried this and went with the suggestion of cutting the sugar in half and it is plenty sweet enough. I also substituted the cumin and cloves with ground anise and orange zest. It gives a slight Asian twist to this sweet/hot condiment and was tasty on grilled steak.
I had never eaten Tomato Jam - someone at work gave me tomatoes yesterday and so I tried this and ...wow, so simple, and so delicious and like the Getty said below was amazing with Goat cheese on crackers. Thank you! I used a little cayenne pepper at the end and powdered ginger, because that's what I had on hand, and it turned out very nice.
I have processed this recipe in a water bath for pantry storage three times. It all sealed perfectly and was fine a year later.
This is so good! I have tomatoes coming out of my garden like gangbusters so I doubled the recipe. I did cut the sugar in half as recommended by others . I’ve made tomato jam before and didn’t really think it was very good so was reluctant to try this. But oh my goodness! This is sooooo good. It made two half pint jars (3 lbs of tomato goodness packed into that space). It’s gold. Try it while summer tomatoes are at their peak!
2/3 cup sugar
Bit too many spices for my taste, with my ongoing glut of tomatoes I made it again the next day with more ginger and no spices- elegant and delectable.
I used 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, juice from a whole lime, and added a diced peach. Perfection.
To those complainers about the sugar, jam is supposed to be sweet. A dab on cheese or toast adds to the enjoyment of life. I make tomato jam with a hot water canner and it lasts for a couple of years, a little bit being used at a time. There has to be enough acid to make canning safe so a canning recipe is needed. I recommend the Blue Book “garden marmalade”, essentially a tomato jam with slivered orange peel for pectin and flavor.
I made this last summer and loved it. I used to go to a restaurant in Cape May Courthouse and that is where I first had this New Jersey jam. It's hard to believe others aren't making it!
Halved the sugar and grated half a green apple into the jam to increase the pectin. Still had to add 2-3x the salt and a good bit of citric acid and lime juice to adjust the sweetness.
This was so delicious on a brioche bun with scrambled eggs and TJ’s 1000 day gouda as a breakfast sandwich this morning! Made this with Roma tomatoes and a jalapeño, both straight from the garden into the pot. Took exactly 90 minutes to cook down. I liked the sweetest from the full sugar, so will keep as is next time. The only thing I plan to change is to decrease the cumin. I LOVE cumin, but I just felt like it overpowered the flavors.
Needed a lot of salt and an extra Tbsp of lime juice + a heavy tsp of citric acid to balance the sugar
Cut sugar in half, add splash of ACV, scotch bonnets instead of Serrano
I followed the recipe but as suggested in the comments, cut the sugar by half. Also added 1tsp of TJ's Chile Lime seasoning (aka Tajin). The jam has a very similar flavor profile and ingredients to British tomato chutney. Really versatile and absolutely delicious.
So easy and delicious! We left out the ginger and it still turned out wonderfully sweet and acidic and tangy— pairs wonderfully with a scotch egg.
Made as per recipe. We agree with many other reviewers that it's just too sweet but we'll try it again with the Pomona's Pectin as the spices and flavors are really nice.
This makes my heart sing and takes me back to childhood! My grandma made this with garden tomatoes, but used orange as the acid. She always included slivered orange peel in the mix. I'm betting she used a bit less sugar, since the oranges are sweet. Yummmmmm...
Advertisement