Do you know why I made this jam? Because organic pears were on sale for like,
really cheap, and I couldn’t resist buying a boat load of them!
I do love pears, and cardamom pairs perfectly with them.
Did you see what I did there? Pears and pairs! I think myself rather witty!
Any hoo, cardamom gives the jam a hint of a floral aroma,
and it’s balanced out by lemon.
I don’t know what the heck commercial pectin is made of, and
since pectin occurs naturally in Granny Smith apples and lemon rind, that’s
what I’m using to thicken the jam.
Commercial pectin also requires a whole lot of sugar in
order to gel, not so with natural pectin!
I use honey to reduce the amount of refined sugar in Pear & Cardamom
Jam, but I feel that some sugar helps with the gelling. The amount of sugar used, including the
honey, is less than half of a recipe that uses commercial pectin, so ya can
taste the fruit!
My favorite way to eat Pear & Cardamom Jam is on an
English muffin or toast with melted butter…mmmmm. This is also great to serve with blue cheese
for an appetizer or dessert. How about
heated and served over ice cream. I can
think of about a dozen uses for Pear & Cardamom Jam!
Here's what you do.
For the fruit you'll need lots of peeled and diced pears, a couple of grated Granny Smith apples skin and all, and three lemons. Use a peeler to remove the zest from the lemons. |
Put all of the fruit into a large bowl with some sugar, honey, and the juice of those lemons. Give it a stir and tuck the apple cores in the mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight. |
Break open some cardamom pods. |
Fish the zest and cores out of the refrigerated fruit, and add them to some cheese cloth with the cardamom. Tightly tie it closed. |
Add the fruit, and it's liquid, to a 6 quart stock pot. Add the cheese cloth pouch. Cook this over medium high-heat for 35 to 45 minutes, stirring frequently. |
Check the jam again in a few minutes, when it gels and looks like jam, it's done! |
Remove the jam from the heat and mash it just slightly. |
PEAR & CARDAMOM JAM, Low Sugar, No Pectin
Makes 9- 8 oz. jars
6 lbs. Bartlett Pears, just barely ripe
1 lb. Granny Smith apples
½ cup Lemon freshly squeezed lemon juice
(about 3 lemons)
3 Lemons,
zest of (use a peeler to get strips of zest)
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Honey
20 Cardamom
pods
½ cup Water
You will also need
1 -6 qt. Stock pot, for cooking the jam
A
boiling water canner (no canner, see note **at
the bottom of the recipe)
1 Large
metal spoon
Canning
tongs (no canning tongs, see note ****at the bottom of the recipe)
Several
clean kitchen towels
Cheese
cloth
Kitchen
twine
1 Sheet pan
Canning
funnel (wide mouth funnel)
Ladle
9 – 8 oz. Canning jars with lids and bands
1. Peel the pears and
cut into small cubes (a little smaller than ½ inch), discard the peels and
cores. Grate the flesh of the apples with
their skin on, do not discard the
cores. Add the diced pears, grated
apple, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and honey to a large bowl; stir
well. Tuck the apple cores down into the
mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. When you are ready to cook the jam: Place a large metal spoon in the freezer. Then in a large piece of cheese cloth add the
cardamom pods, fold over the cheese cloth and use a mallet or a small pan to
gently break open the cardamom pods. Remove
the apple cores and lemon zest from the refrigerated pears and add them to the
cheese cloth with the cardamom, fold the ends of the cheese cloth in and tie it
tightly with kitchen twine.
3. Pour the pear
mixture into a large (6 quart) pot. Add the
cheese cloth pouch containing the cardamom, zest and cores. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and
cook for 35-45 minutes from the boiling point, stirring frequently, stirring especially
as the mixture thickens. To test if the
jam is done, remove the metal spoon from the freezer, drop just a tad of the
hot jam on to the spoon, if it thickens the consistency of jam, then the jam is
done, if it’s still runny continue to cook and stir the jam (remember to clean
and return the spoon to the freezer so that you can test the jam again in a few
minutes). Remove and discard the cheese cloth pouch. Use a potato masher, and just mash it a few
times (five or six) to break up some of the pears, leave a good bit of chunky
pears for texture, otherwise, you’ve got pear butter.
4. While the jam is
cooking: If you’ve got a boiling water
canner, prepare that according the manufacturer’s directions (no canner, see
below). Also sterilize the jars the jars
according to the manufacturer’s directions (no directions see below).
5. I like to work with half of the jars at a time. Fill the hot jars with the hot jam, (a
canning funnel is helpful), leaving ½ inch of headspace. Clean the rims with a clean damp cloth. Top each jar with a lid, and apply each band
just to fingertip tight. Return the
filled jars to the pot (using the tongs); being sure that there is 1 inch of
water over the top of the jars. Bring
the water to a boil, and then cook for 10 minutes from the boiling point. Lay a dry towel on a sheet pan, remove the
jars of processed jam to the pan, you should hear the tops pop as the vacuum seal
forms. Tighten the bands. Leave the jars to set up in one
place for a couple of days. If you had
any leftover jam, put it into an airtight container and store in the
refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Also if any of the jars didn't seal, refrigerate those, they'll keep for several weeks.
Processed jam will last for about a year in the pantry; and then once opened, up to 9 months in the refrigerator.
Notes: *This recipe is easily cut in half.
**If you don’t
have a canner; place a clean kitchen towel in the bottom of each large stock
pot (you will need to pots to process 9 jars), this keeps the glass jars from
coming in direct contact with the heat. Now you can fill it the pot with water
and add the jars to it. Bring the water
to a simmer, while the jam cooks.
***To sterilize the jars, place the jars, lids, and bands in
the pots, and fill with water, cover the jars by at least an inch. Place the pots on the cook top and bring the
water to a good simmer, just under a rolling boil. I like to simmer them for about 10 minutes,
and then turn the water down to a gentle simmer while the jams finishes
cooking, but be sure to leave the jars and lids in the water until the jam has
finished cooking.
****No canning tongs, wrap the tips of your regular tongs
with a few rubber bands.
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I love jams with interesting combinations. This sounds like a winner, I'm definitely going to have to try it! :) Have a great weekend Kari!
ReplyDeletePears and cardamom...a winning combination, Kari.
ReplyDelete