Vyxxan's Virtual Venture

Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow… oh wait… it’s jam today!

Last weekend I dyed wool yarn. I have a post about what I did last weekend, but I’m not posting it until my friend gets her yarn.

This weekend I could have dyed more yarn, but I decided I’d better make tomato jam instead. We are on our last jar, I think, and I didn’t make any at all last year because of such a poor tomato crop. Ron really likes blackberries but his favorite jam since he met me and my mad kitchen skillz… well, it’s tomato jam. He’d never had any until I met him and introduced him to it. Now it’s his favorite. Me, I grew up with one of my Mom’s friends making TONS of the stuff… I helped one year to make 32 quarts of tomato jam! That’s a lot! (and I totally see the point of quarts when you make that much… less jar filling)

I know, you are wondering where I’m getting tomatoes in January. Well, from the freezer, of course! All extra tomatoes that we don’t eat or give away (or sell), for whatever reason… those get cut up and bagged and frozen. So, this tomato has a big bad spot on the bottom but otherwise is fine? Cut that off, it can go in the freezer. If you’ve ever grown a lot of tomatoes you know that there are those that just don’t make the cut to eat fresh… you hate to waste them but probably do. I don’t. As long as the bad spots, sunburned spots, whatever get cut off, I freeze em. Or rather Ron does… this last year I pretty much took over on the growing part of it and all Ron did was pick them and do the freezing stuff when needed.

So, last night I pulled 4 gallon bags out of the freezer. 2 were pretty full, the other 2 only about 1/2 full. Looked like enough tomatoes for 2 batches of jam and that’s plenty for one day. I used to try to do double batches, but after having to recook countless times, I’ve given that up! It’s easier to do it all at once, but not if you have to dump all the jars back out and add more sugar and pectin and boil it all over again.

So I start out with a bag and a half of semi-frozen tomato pieces. I dump them into a colander and let the excess water drain. Some of that water is tomato juice, some is frost from the freezer. Down the drain it goes… tomatoes are mostly water and water doesn’t make good jam.

Then I start slipping the skins. This is another reason to freeze… the skins slip with out all that boiling water, dipping, and trying to peel them. It’s a messy business, and the longest part of the process. Not only do I slip the skins, but I try to get any bits that are green looking or seed holders that are white. (I could skip this if I could get Ron to squeeze the tomatoes before freezing, something to work on this year)

Tomato pulp goes into a bowl. I do try to get out a lot of the seeds while I’m slipping the skins, but it really depends on how frozen the tomatoes are. Tomatoes that are still mostly frozen are not as easy to peel, and they have a lot more water held in them than ones that have sat in that colander longer. BUT! The seeds pop out easier when the tomatoes are still pretty frozen. The good bits will be almost like wet sundried tomatoes when you slip the skin. All pulp, not fluffy with water. The less water the better, too… as this jam is very hard to get to set. It’s taken me years to get a good recipe and it’s =still= iffy sometimes. If you have never made a jam or jelly before you probably don’t want to try this as your first attempt.

Sometimes I chop the pulp as I go, this year I skipped that step… it’s a bigger mess. And we all know how tomatoes just sort of come apart when they cook anyhow, right? So, finally I have a bowl of tomato pulp that I stir around looking for bits of skin or big chunks of green that escaped my eye while slipping the skins.

Measure it out. 4 to 5 cups is good. If you have more, save it for the next batch. Make sure it’s not too watery. It should look like this photo. (and yes, I know this looks like a lot of chopped meat or something, except it has seeds) It should NOT look like bits of tomato swimming in juice.
BTW, if you want to do this in summer with fresh tomatoes… you peel, squeeze, chop and then let drain for a while unless you LIKE standing at a hot stove for hours cooking it down and boiling off the excess water. The water draining off easy is my second reason for using frozen and thawed tomatoes from our garden.

I used powdered pectin this time, some that I’d bought a while back when I couldn’t find the liquid stuff. Not a big deal, the basic process is the same sort of… I did forget with the first batch tho, and added the sugar first. According to the powdered pectin recipe you add the sugar later, after it’s at a boil. Oh well! With liquid pectin you add the sugar first and boil, then add the pectin. Whatever, I figured it wouldn’t really hurt it as long as I made sure to cook the tomatoes a while before getting up to that boil.

Whatever kind of pectin you are using…. you want 7 cups of sugar to that 4 or5 cups of pulp. Plus 1/4 cup of bottled lemon juice. If you think your tomatoes are really watery… go with less pulp or cook them longer before adding the pectin. I like my jam rather soft, but not runny…. however, even 5 cups of pulp in the mix tends to work out… it’s very spreadable! This jam is mostly pulp, not juice, after that freezing thawing thing.

So, bringing it up to a boil. Not something you want to go watch tv while it’s cooking. (I have done that, and scorched the jam) Stand there and stir, stir stir. It’s going to get very, very, very, very hot when it has sugar in it and reaches a rolling boil. You don’t want small children around who could get splashed. I’ve had it pop at me, that’s a burn if it lands on skin. I managed to splash it all over myself tonight… face, arm, shirt, pants and headphones. That’s because I was pouring in the partial jar I’d made earlier… so it could get cooked in, heated… I forgot that I was going to just heat that partial jar in the microwave and fill it. Of course I got it all over the floor too… what a mess! I don’t think I got burned, tho…. I jumped back and ran in and washed off with ice cold water as fast as I could drop the spoon in the pan.

I have all these pictures but they wouldn’t upload before I started this post. So I’m not sure where I am now. Oh, yeah! Me making jam! With headphones… standing at the stove is boring, so I needed music to dance to while stirring my tomato jam. Yes, Ron was laughing at me. I sing, too… and badly. But as long as I’m not too loud he doesn’t care. The important thing was making him the tomato jam. :)

Have 8 jars and a partial jar cooling on the counter. It’s still runny, but I hope with time and some refrigeration that will resolve itself. It usually does. We don’t want jam that is hard to spread, like jello or commercial jams. Spoon in the jar and smear it on a buttered biscuit… heaven.

Lastly, a recipe that might still need to be tweaked. I usually use a strawberry jam recipe to start from… with my frozen tomatoes, that is. I figure the water content is pretty close. Your mileage may vary… tomato jam isn’t for beginners.

Tomato Jam

4 to 5 cups tomato pulp (no skins and the less seeds and juice/water the better)
1/4 cup bottled lemon juice
7 cups sugar
Liquid or powdered pectin

Follow basic pectin jam instructions. Pour into jars, put lids on and seal with a water bath as recommended. Or do like we always did… put boiling jam into jars right from the burner still going and put lids and bands on, and turn over like this for 5 min. Then turn back right side up.

And be careful! I used the oven to keep my jars hot and sterilized today and kept trying to move them with bare fingers. Then I splashed my jam on myself, it’s a wonder I’m not burned. Sticky but not burned. Ron can always lick me clean, lol…

hugs,
Vyx

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