Fig Jam
By:Roseanne
Cantisani
On
Thursday last week I looked in the refrigerator
and saw the plate full of figs were starting to
turn brown. Neither my husband or I are big fig
eaters but I still didn't want them to be wasted.
I checked an old preserving book that my mother
gave me not long ago to see about making jam with
the figs. In the past I experimented with strawberry
and grape jam, which were both a great success.
Although I learned some tricks that I will share
later to save you all from making the same mistakes.
The book I looked in was the Ball Blue Book, The
Guide to Home Canning and Freezing. I looked up
fig jam and saw that it was very simple.
To
prepare chopped figs: Cover figs with boiling water.
Let stand 10 minutes. Drain, stem, and chop figs.
Combine
figs, sugar and ¼ cup of water in a large
sauce pot. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until
sugar dissolves. Cook rapidly until thick. Stir
frequently to prevent sticking. Add lemon juice
and cook 1 minute longer. Pour hot into hot jars,
leaving ¼ inch head space. Adjust caps. Process
15 minutes on a boiling water bath. Yields about
5 pints.
The
process looked great to me except I though that
it was a lot of sugar and also I did not have five
pounds of figs. I had about one pound of the small
green figs. I followed the directions at first and
then did my own thing. I used only about ¾
cup of sugar and 2-3 cups of water. I quartered
the figs rather than chop them and I found that
they were still tough after the initial water was
evaporated. So I continued to add water until I
liked the consistency of the fig mixture. I added
less sugar than the recipe called for because I
wanted the jam to taste natural, rather than sweet.
Once the figs were tender I noticed that they had
all turned an even green color rather than a bit
spotty when I started. I understand that when the
small spots form, as in bananas, the natural sugar
in the fruit is changing and rising to the skin
as the fruit ripens. As the figs cooked the sugar
dissolved into the jam causing most of the spot
to vanish.
The
filled jar while hot was inverted and wrapped in
a dishcloth sat overnight. I didn't boil it in a
water bath because I don't plan on keeping it for
very long and hope the seal took with the heat of
the jam. Also, I had jarred some applesauce that
same day and had those two jars in the same pot
inverted and wrapped in a dishcloth. I figured the
heat from the three jars was enough to seal the
preserves.
In
the past when I made strawberry and grape preserves,
I learned a few tricks. Grape was the first jelly
I ever made and the first time I ever used pectin.
All I did was follow the recipe in the pectin package.
After that time I learned that there is light pectin
for those who want to use less sugar and still get
the firm jelly. The strawberry jam was better; we
used the pectin light and found it to firm up with
out using so much sugar. But the fig jam seems to
be the best of all three. I think the trick is to
really let it boil until the desired thickness.
Cooking is always such an adventure, which is what
makes it fun for me!
©2000
- Roseanne Cantisani
About
the author: Roseanne Cantisani is a freelance writer
and
editor of Dateable.com's
Simply Delicious, a web site dedicated to
simple, healthy cooking. You can find articles,
recipes, kitchen
and cooking products, and a forum for any cooking
or entertaining
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