Monday 18 June 2012

Rhubarb and Vanilla Jam


This is my jam pan. It is huge and enormous and we rescued it from on top of my mother’s kitchen cupboards. She had at least 3 up there, I think they were breeding.  


We’re at a bit of a critical period of the year as far as our preserves (ha ha!) are concerned. We ran out of chutney a few weeks ago as Blue seems to be inhaling it, and we’re running pretty low on jam. It’s at this point in the year that the balance between the shelf for jam and the shelf for empty jam jars starts to tip in favour of the latter, while the kids end up digging out something half-crystalised to spread on their toast from a jar that bears a label indicating the contents to be at least 3 years old.

The 'jam' cupboard. Spot the home-pickled chillies

I am not great at making jam. In fact, the Husband usually comes into his own here, confidently taking over the whole setting point thing, until he got so fed up with me wailing about it that he bought me a sugar thermometer. I used the sugar thermometer last summer when I made Nigella’s
peach and redcurrant jam . Not a fantastic example of confident jam making, granted, but we made some pretty lovely marmalade earlier this year with the help of the thermometer, and so tonight, I was prepared, and instead of sticking plates in the freezer, I just got the thermometer out of the drawer AT THE START of the process.


Everything is so late in the garden this year, there’s not much to make jam out of, and certainly nothing that could be worth turning into chutney yet, but we do have rhubarb. A colleague gave me this recipe a few months ago and I have been dying to try it. She assured me that the resulting jam tastes like rhubarb and custard. She was not wrong.








The original recipe was copied out of a Country Living magazine, but I have added a couple of bits in, and given some more detail in the method.

***Before you start on this, bear in mind that you need to leave the rhubarb to macerate in the sugar for at least 8 hrs – I left mine for 24 – before actually making the jam***

Rhubarb and Vanilla Jam

Ingredients: 1kg summer rhubarb (trimmed weight), 1 kg jam sugar, 1 vanilla pod, juice of half a lemon and half an orange.

Method: wash and trim the rhubarb, and slice into short lengths – I followed the picture my friend gave me so the pieces were about 1-2 cms long. Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Put rhubarb, vanilla pod and seeds in a large bowl with the sugar, stir together, cover and leave for at least 8 hrs somewhere cool – the fridge is good.



This draws out a lot of liquid from the fruit.

When you are ready to make the jam, empty the fruit and sugar mixture into a large pan. It will be quite gloopy and sticky with a load of sugar at the bottomg of the bowl. Scrape it all into the pan.
It doesn’t have to be a specific jam pan, but it needs to have a good, thick bottom.


Add the lemon and orange juice, then heat up the pan gently and stir (also gently) till the sugar is dissolved, then increase the heat and bring the pan to the boil till it has reached setting point. You can faff about with frozen plates but I urge you to buy a jam thermometer. It has a big line with the word JAM by it at approx 1020C /2200 F.
check out the pink froth!

When the jam mixture has reached this temperature, turn the heat off, remove the vanilla pod and skim off any scum that has formed on top of the jam. Leave for 5 mins then fill your sterilised jars (I used 850g rhubarb and 850g sugar and it made 4 jars). Cover the jars with a clean tea towel until cool, then put the lids on and feel smug as you put them in the cupboard.


Just loving the colour!

13 comments:

  1. Looks yummy... I'm very jealous of your jam pan. I'm sure making the jam in a gorgeous pan makes it better!! X

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  2. Like the idea that jam pans would breed- sounds like my Mum's steamed pudding bowls.

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    1. I have found that quite a lot of kitchen pans/trays have a tendancy to 'breed'. Loaf tins in particular. Drives the Husband potty.

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    2. Yes I'm think about finding the spring-loaded cake tins so I don't have so many and the bake trays are worse, squares, rectangles, I have yet to find two recipes with the same size. It would be nice to have the right size and find out what the intention of the original recipe actually was!

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  3. Oh wow, this looks fantastic. Rhubarb and vanilla - would be great in a cake. I have exactly the same jam pan, also salvaged from my mum's kitchen cupboard. Well done you - smugness well earned!

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    1. you're right - the serving suggestion that came with this in the article suggested using it and creme fraich to sandwich a sponge cake. It tasted very good on toast though, so I'm not sure it will get that far.

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  4. I am definitely going to try this as rhubarb is the only garden success this year. Have made rhubarb and date chutney and rhubarb fool so far, both gorgeous.

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    1. going to have to try rhubarb chutney - sounds good with dates, and someone else I know has suggested with ginger. Usually, chutney in our house majors on courgette.

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  5. Got heaps of rhubarb in our garden, so am going to have to try out this recipe in my Thermomix!

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    1. Thermomix? Is that a new-fangled jam making machine? [quickly clicks back to google] The jam is great.

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  6. I just made this, majority of the rhubarb was green and mines a borwny pink colour by even not cooled it's addictive stuff. Thank you thank you thank you for sharing :o)

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    1. Great stuff!! It is gorgeous, isn't it. I don't think the 4 jars will be lasting long in our house

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