In the absence of a freezer I needed to find some way to preserve some of the mountains of rhubarb we're bringing home. I've never made jam before. And I've never eaten rhubarb jam. I thought I'd try.
I googled to find recipes, but realising I didn't have to hand all of the ingredients or equipment for any of the recipes I did a version somewhere between. It seems alright to me, but I have no rhubarb jam frame of reference to base my judgement on. I'm making more this week anyhow. We still have a lot of rhubarb.
So, the recipe.
Rhubarb - I had 350g, which worked out as about the right amount to make one standard Kilner jar of jam.
Sugar - equal amount to rhubarb (so 350g in this case), I used golden caster sugar because that was what was in my cupboard, some recipes suggested jam sugar as it contains pectin, but I was aiming for getting that from the rhubarb itself by a ...
Lemon - I read that adding the juice of a lemon (1 for each 500g of fruit) would draw out the pectin in the fruit.
Ginger - I only had fresh ginger. I figured this was the best anyway, although all the recipes I read used a mixture of fresh and dried or crystallised. I think I added about 10g.
I made it by cutting up the rhubarb and leaving it to stand in the sugar and lemon overnight. The next day I added the ginger, moved it to a saucepan. Stirring constantly I heated the mixture to boiling and boiled for 10 mins (until the rhubarb was all softened). Put in a jar and enjoy.
I've made 3 jars of Rhubarb and Ginger Jam this evening, more or less the same recipe except I had a 1 kilo bag of Jam sugar in the cupboard, so I picked equal weight of Rhubarb ( seven large sticks ). I Picked the Rhubarb this morning, covered it with the Sugar,Lemon zest & Juice& grated fresh Ginger plus some chopped crystallised ginger too. Left it for the afternoon, then made it this evening. Hope yours was as delicious as this has turned out !
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