Recipe: Tomato Jam

I mentioned in an earlier post that I went to the Minneapolis Farmers Market at the end of September and bought a bunch of tomatoes. It’s part of an annual end-of-summer tradition. This year, I bought a basket full of tomatoes. It might have been more than we usually get. It was a lot of tomatoes. But they were right at their vine-ripened peak and perfect for the combination of recipes that I usually use.

One recipe is for oven roasted tomatoes. Click here for my previous blog post on that.

The other recipe is for tomato jam. I’m kind of surprised I haven’t posted it previously. It’s really delicious. I got it from the New York Times, back when Mark Bittman was the food editor. (When Bittman was the Minimalist. That was before he became the Opinionator (which he is now) and became shrill, shallow, and tedious.)

So here’s the link to the recipe.

Tomato Jam (NYTimes, August 20, 2008)

1 1/2 pounds good ripe tomatoes (Roma are best), cored and coarsely chopped

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

1 jalapeño or other peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced, or red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste.

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan, Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.

2. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool and refrigerate until ready to use; this will keep at least a week.

Yield: About 1 pint.

Krik’s tips: I have to admit I don’t follow the quantities very closely. I probably use double the tomatoes, only a little more sugar, and the rest of the seasonings vary from batch to batch. It doesn’t seem to make a lot of difference. However, the last batch I made was particularly large, and I think I should have cooked it longer. The jam seems more runny. More like a sweet salsa than jam. Good flavor but the texture is different.

I like to use this instead of ketchup (or catsup) on burgers and grilled meat. My wife and I also like to serve it on crackers as an appetizer.