Last year I wasn’t in the jam business.
(It’s mainly because the year before, i. e. 2020, I was a real big jam cooker during summer working w/ strawberries, apricots, raspberries, red currants … So I had a lot of jam jars waiting in my pantry to be opened.)
When starting in 2022 I realized that there was no more home-made jam – so out of a moment I decided to cook jam. Which jam?
January isn’t quite a season for fresh fruit, however, pineapple is fine especially in winter & there is delicious fresh ginger on the market. So I decided to try a pineapple-ginger jam – a fusion of sweet pineapple and spicy ginger, creamy w/ little bits of fruit, and a color like sunshine.
It’s essential to work with ripe pineapples, only ripe pineapples. The pineapple I used was ripe and had already lost her leaves. The inside was juicy, however, not brown.
… and my trusted food store had just in time got a delivery of fresh ginger …
Before starting with the jam mess:
Did you notice that there is a new feature on Instagram?
End of last year I noticed that some Instagram posts had more than one author meaning that 2 different Instagram accounts had sent this post. The feature is called “co-author”. You can design a post in one account – and then before publishing you may invite another account to join. When your invitation is accepted, the Instagram post is published combining both accounts as the source – and the post is to be seen in each accounts.
I work with 3 Instagram accounts and now I’m able to combine my posts. I really like this new feature.
Coming back to my jam …
I wanted to cook only a small batch of jam – meaning 1000 g fruit & 500 g preserving sugar (2:1). This should end up in 6 small jam jars.
I peeled & trimmed the pineapple and chopped the chunks into small bits. The same happened to the ginger – especially discard all the wooden parts!
My pineapple was about 600 g net of fruit bits; I added about 200 g chopped ginger.
I mixed the basics and added 50 ml lemon juice & 150 ml pineapple juice. Altogether it should be 1000 g. If the pineapple is only about 500 g just fill up w/ 100 ml pineapple juice.
Half of the mess was puréed w/ a handheld blender in a separate high pot & poured onto the rest.
Finally the preserving sugar is due & all is mixed w/ a spoon.
If you hadn’t cared for clean jam jars w/ twist-off caps so far do it now before starting the boiling session.
I brought the mess to a boil & let it cook for at least 3 min (for you: let it cook for … whatever the package of the preserving sugar recommends).
Then I filled the bubbling mess in the jam jars, screwed the lid on & put the jam jar upside down. The jam may be stored in the pantry.
I got 5 jam jars à 250 g … and a bowl filled w/ the rest for tasting.
My pineapple-ginger jam is spicy, really spicy – waking your senses in the morning! Remember that there is about 200 g of ginger … If you like it less spicy just reduce the amount of ginger to … 150 g or so.
Enjoy!
- 1 pineapple (about 600 g peeled & trimmed)
- 200 g ginger (peeled & trimmed)
- 50 ml lemon juice
- 150 ml pineapple juice
- 500 g preserving sugar (2:1)
- handheld immersion blender
- 5-6 jam jars w/ twist-off caps (à 250 g)
- Clean 6 jam jars à 250 g (or correspondingly) with twist-off caps.
- Peel & trim the pineapple; chop the pineapple (small bits!).
- Peel & trim the ginger; chop the ginger (very small bits!)
- Weigh the fruit, add the lemon juice & fill w/ pineapple juice; you'll need 1000 g – not more!
- Blend about the half of the mess w/ your handheld immersion blender.
- Put everything in a pot (big enough!) & add the preserving sugar.
- Mix & bring to a boil. Let it cook for at least 3 min resp. refer to the recommendation on the package of the preserving sugar.
- Fill the bubbling mess in the jam jars, close at once & turn upside down.
