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…
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See our Jam Making Primer for more tips on making jam.
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