Pete tried his hand at ginger jam last weekend and the end result was this delicious cross between jelly and jam, with a hot bite and suspended pieces of ginger. I’m not entirely sure what we’ll do with it yet, but it is certainly tasty.
We purchased “medium” old ginger pieces at the markets for $6/kg. Young ginger won’t have enough flavour for this, and old or very old ginger might be a bit stringy.
- 1kg ginger pieces
- 2kg white sugar
- 3 x 300ml jars homemade pectin
- juice of 1 lemon
1. Peel the ginger and chop it finely. Place it in a large pot with the pectin and lemon juice and simmer for half an hour (or more), covered, until soft.
2. Add sugar and boil gently until the sugar is dissolved, skimming off any surface scum as you go. Once the jam is cleaned of all foam, raise the temperature and bring the mixture to a rapid boil.
3. Boil until set. Test by putting a small amount on a cold saucer – the jam is set if it wrinkles slightly when pushed. Make sure you turn off the heat while you do this, or your jam might burn. If the jam hasn’t set, boil it up again for a little longer. If it still doesn’t set, you might need to add more sugar, pectin or lemon juice – as the ginger doesn’t have any natural pectin or sugar (I’m not sure about acid), all these things need to be added. The consistency of this jam is really more of a thick, sweet, syrupy jelly with suspended pieces of ginger.
4. Ladle the jam into sterile jars and seal tightly, then process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, ensuring that the water covers the lids by at least 2.5cm. Note: make sure you put the hot jars into hot water – if you use cold water, the glass jars may crack.
Does anyone have suggestions on what we might do with this, other than eat it on toast? Thanks…
. . . . .
See our Jam Making Primer for more tips on making jam.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Constantly craving….thats ginger jam for me. I am ADDICTED to it. With Lowfat Turkish yoghurt and flaked raw almonds. That’s my comfort food. When do you guys move to Europe??????
And we have the same type of chopping board….nice and stripy
There is a sticky toffee pudding recipe, that uses ginger, in the Delia Smith Winter book. I am sure your jam could play a role in a version of that, maybe a liquid centre to the pudding? Or how about ginger jam steamed pudding?
Could you make a ginger bakewell tart? I would like that too please. Or a ginger drizzle cake? Or parkin? Or an ingredient in a fantastic marinade?
Sometimes, I mix the ginger jam with some ginger wine and have that in yoghurt. I’ve also used some ginger jam to make a syrup which I poured over a pear and chocolate cake! Sorry I thinking in fits and starts
Oooh, all wonderful suggestions, thank you!
Oz, I’ve got some of Pete’s homemade yoghurt – I’ll try the ginger jam over that.
Jo, I was thinking of using it as a cake glaze – I think it would work very well. I’ll check out the Delia recipe – thank you!
I’ve never tried ginger jam. I’m curious about the flavor.
Never eaten ginger jam but it sounds intruiguing.
A ‘chutney’ type of replacement on sandwiches with ham and cheese? Or on scones. Or perhaps even folded through some cream to have with a nice rich chocolate cake, with the hidden hit of the spicy ginger?
Talita, it tastes like glace or stem ginger – a little bit of a hot ginger bite, but mostly sweet.
SG, I don’t think it would go with ham and cheese, it’s a little too sweet for that. It would be better suited to desserts – chocolate is a very good idea… :)
You could use it as a cake glaze, or stir a little into a strong cup of tea to sweeten it up. You could glaze a ham or even a chook with it before baking? It sounds lovely!
Tea! That’s a great idea, thank you. When I was at college, we had Indian friends who always made a delicious ginger tea – I’ll see if I can make something similar. Glazing a ham is a nice idea too…
Yeah I vote for the glazed ham idea and ginger tea idea too!
[…] need Yoghurt (1st call, Turkish….2nd, Greek and 3rd…plain) Ginger Jam (store-bought or homemade) Raw, flaked almonds Optional – Ginger wine; Amaretti cookies […]
Serve with pork or chicken, use as a BBQ sauce, or on top of chocolate ice-cream!
Thanks for the tip, Julie!
Mix with butter and spread on baked sweet potatoes!
Great idea, thanks Kayci! :)