I did this post last week, though I thought I did. But no one saw it, so I knew something was up. In the meantime I upgraded to the premium plan so my site is now ourgrowingpaynes.blog. As I was doing that I asked about this post. Turns out I created a site page instead of a blog post! Doh. Hopefully now I can get this back on track. 🙂
I am really regretting removing our air conditioners. Granted, it’s nice to have a longer growing season this year, but man, the humidity needs to go! While we don’t like it the tomatoes seem to love this. Which means we have to be creative is preserving all that goodness!
One of our favourite restaurants has a really good charcuterie plate and they very often have tomato jam as part of it. It’s something my husband regularly orders there and he asked if I could make some tomato jam at home. No idea how they make theirs but here is my version.
I have to say, prepping the tomatoes is a messy endeavor. But it needs to be done. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and then cut a cross into the bottom. Prep 2 1/2lbs/40ozs of tomatoes for this jam.
Blanch each tomato for about 30 seconds in boiling water.
Remove and set aside to cool. Or you can dip in cold water. I just let them cool. Doesn’t take too long. Remove the skins.
Then it gets really messy! Remove the seeds and coarsely chop up the tomatoes and add to a saucepan. Add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice and a big handful of fresh thyme. I chopped up the thyme finely as I didn’t want large bits of herb in the jam. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Because I didn’t want a high sugar jam I just added 1 cup/8oz of sugar to start.
Mix well and keep simmering. I also use low sugar pectin to help thicken the jam. I didn’t want to mask the flavour of the tomato with too much sugar. I add a bit of the pectin at the time. Hard to remove it if you go too far!
This is really good with cheese and would be good with bread and butter. It’s a nice alternative to the usual berry jam. A reminder of summer when the cooler decides to finally arrive.
Now I want to make that myself! Your description is so great, Thank you!
Thank you, so glad you enjoyed it!
The jam looks delicious.
Thank you! It’s nice to have some variety of jams and chutneys to go along with wine and cheese night.
What a great combination. Next time I make tomato jam, I have to add thyme.
We have so much thyme in our garden, I try to find ways to use it.
That sounds amazing. Will have to wait until next summer though as the winter tomatoes in England…well, enough said!
Yeah, when we move back we’ll have to rely on greenhouses for that.
It really looks good! Why on earth did you take out your air conditioners?!!
Because autumn started! Then summer came back. But we’re getting frosts now so it’s definitely autumn now.
Wonderful recipe. We still have tomatoes in Northern France, this is really tempting.
We had the pull up the plants this weekend so the season is done for tomatoes this year.
Prepping tomatoes is a pain, but look at the outcome! Glorious!
Thank you! It is worth the effort, just wish there was another way. 😄