Fig-Rhubarb-Lemon Jam
Fig-Rhubarb-Lemon Jam is a low-sugar cooked jam made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener. Janet Mercurio of Winters, California, brought us a recipe similar to this one. It sounded so good that Connie worked with the original to convert it to a low-sugar Pomona’s recipe.Janet followed the converted recipe and reported back: “I really like it — the sweet and tart flavor reminds me a bit of marmalade. And it’s nice to know it doesn’t have a ton of added sugar. I’m so looking forward to sharing it with my family members!“Thank you both so much for your product. Now I have something new and exciting to do with all of my figs. I just need to plant some rhubarb — I had to buy this batch. Ciao!”
Servings 5 cups
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped and mashed fresh figs
- 2 cups cooked rhubarb
- 1 lemon for zesting/grating
- ¼ cup lemon juice bottled
- 3 teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin mixed with sweetener
Instructions
- Before you begin, prepare calcium water.To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well.Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Wash lids and bands and set aside.
- Rinse, stem, chop, and mash figs.
- Wash and trim rhubarb stalks. Cut into ½ inch pieces. Put in saucepan, add just a little water, and simmer until soft.
- Finely zest/grate the peel of 1 lemon.
- Measure mashed figs, cooked rhubarb, lemon zest, lemon juice, and calcium water into sauce pan. Stir well.
- Measure sugar into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sugar. Set aside.
- Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-sugar mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the jam comes back up to a boil. Once the jam returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.
- Remove hot jars from canner and fill jars with (marmalade/jam/jelly), leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Remove trapped air bubbles, wipe rims and put on lids and screw bands, tightening bands only to “fingertip tight” (until resistance is met, and then just the tiniest bit more). Place jars in the hot water, on the rack inside the canner. (Make sure jars are upright, not touching each other or the sides of the canner, and are covered with at least 1-2 inches of water). Place the lid on the canner, bring the canner to a rolling boil, and boil for 10 minutes. (Add 1 minute additional processing time for every 1000 feet above sea level.)
- Turn off heat and allow canner and jars to sit for 5 minutes. Then, remove jars from canner. Allow jars to cool undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Then, confirm that jars have sealed, then store properly. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
I made it as directed. Turned out very stiff! I asked a friend who makes jam for a living, and she said that figs and rhubarb don’t require pectin. So next time I will try without, as the taste is good.
I have made this recipe but combined with red and gold fall raspberries. We grow a variety of fruits including figs, rhubarb and 4 varieties of raspberries and I like to try different combinations of fruit in season.I
This looks wonderful. I have a bag of Fig Pieces by Nutra-Fig. Can I use them in the fig jam recipes?
That should be just fine Vicki. If they are dried figs, you will want to rehydrate them first.
Place dried fruit in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to sit for 15-20 minutes until plump then strain and use (you may wish to reserve the “juice” so that you can add it to your jam mixture if it appears to need more liquid…as we want it to behave as much like fresh fruit as possible).