Summer Tomato Jam

My good friend Lillian sent me this one a couple of months ago. She ate this when she was visiting her friend Kathy in Maryland and Kathy was kind enough to dig up two links for me to try. I had Lillian and two of our other close friends over for a socially distanced dinner in the carport on Tuesday. It seemed like the perfect time to give the jam a try!

Here's the cast--don't they look pretty?
I was glad this recipe didn't call for peeled tomatoes. Hate doing that. I sliced them in half, removed the core and then chopped them coarsely for the food processor.
Into the processor...
And away we go!
I wasn't sure how fine a mixture the recipe needed so I settled for a slightly chunky purée.
Light brown sugar, lemon juice and its zest were added next.
The mixture was brought to a boil and left to simmer for about an hour. Because of the high sugar content, I kept the simmer rather low and stirred frequently.
This is the mixture at the halfway point. This is when I realized that the simmer needed to considerably higher in order to get rid of most of the liquid. So I raised the heat and hovered nearby for the next 30 minutes.

About 40 minutes in.
At the 50 minute mark.
And at the one hour mark. It looked like strawberry jam.
I wasn't planning on canning them but I put them in canning jars anyway. Because they're convenient. And I like them.

And there you go! I thought I took a photo of the way I served this but apparently I was too busy eating it. I got some whipped cream cheese, stirred in a little of the jam and then topped it with more jam. We ate it with crackers and it was really yummy--the cheese cut the sweetness of the jam and the jam's texture went well with the creamy smoothness of the cheese. 

Lillian got the second jar to take home and the jar that stayed is almost gone. I'd call that a success!
Thanks, Kathy! Hope I get to meet, and eat with, you one day!

Here's the promised link:

Comments

  1. FlamingoslimAugust 9, 2020 at 5:43 AM

    Hey, Judy, this is Kathy, Lillian's friend of the tomato jam recipe. I'm so happy you tried the jam. We just made some with our homegrown tomatoes (we're in Maryland). When Lillian asked me for the recipe I made last year, I was shocked to realize I'd never saved it. So disorganized! (Most people fantasize about being rich, famous, or beautiful. I fantasize about being organized.) So after going through a zillion bookmarks, I settled on the one you tried. The first time I tried tomato jam was from a friend's mom's gentleman friend many many years ago. I remember the flavor as being all tomato -- sweet but not too sweet. The tomato flavor was amazing. I realize some of that might have been due to the type of tomato he grew (unknown), but I don't remember any lingering lemon flavor. This recipe is close to that flavor, but could be stronger. I may use a different tomato if I can get enough, or simply reduce the amount of lemon. Lemon is critical for the jelling, but this recipe wanted juice and zest, so I'm thinking of eliminating the zest and maybe cutting the sugar back a little. I'll let you know about any progress I make as the summer tomatoes keep coming. Nice meeting you! Lovely blog. Hope we'll get to share some toast and jam in the future.

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    Replies
    1. AKA JudyAugust 9, 2020 at 6:05 PM

      Hi Kathy! Thank you so much for the recipe--I am finding more and more that the recipes I enjoy making and writing about the most are the ones where I have a personal connection of some sort established. Absolutely loved that Lillian enjoyed the jam so much that she asked you about it. Love it! Hoping I get a chance to try it with my son's second tomato crop. Hope we get a chance to meet in person one day--it'll be an eating extravaganza for sure! Please feel free to shoot over any other recipes you think I should try!

      Delete

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