Tomato Jam
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 10:18AM 
I’m not sure I would consider myself a terribly adventurous cook. I like to try new things, but “new things” usually has to fall into a comfort zone of sorts (no entrails, for instance). So for the past couple of years, tomato jam was pretty much outside those parameters. Even though tomatoes are just flowing from the garden, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of a jam made from tomatoes. Did I really need that? It just wasn’t calling to me. At least not until now.
Last week I came across Mark Bittman’s recipe for the stuff, and he was just raving about it, saying it was like his new favorite thing, and that sort of caught my attention; not only because I’m up to my eyeballs in tomatoes once again,
but also because I’m rather partial to Mr. Bittman and his Minimalist approach to food and cooking. So he pretty much "talked" me into this... OK, then, I’m making tomato jam.
First of all, the combination of these ingredients (cinnamon, cloves, cumin, crushed red pepper, lime juice, and of course tomatoes) sounded simultaneously lovely and intriguing, but I wasn't so good with the sugar part. Sweet tomatoes? Not so sure about that. But I needn’t have feared. In a word, scrumptious. Really scrumptious. So very good and so very easy to make.
So all of the ingredients get dumped in your saucepan and you just let it cook down for about an hour and 15 minutes.
It will slowly and miraculously turn into jam.
Sweet, tangy, spicy and tomato-y! And a big bonus here is that as it cooks down, it perfumes your kitchen (and most of the house) with the most intoxicating aromas. I would almost make it again just for that.
But you must make it because tomato jam is really, really good.
I served it on crackers topped with goat cheese and that was awesome. But the whole time I kept thinking how good this would be on biscuits. Can you imagine? Yes, I’m making biscuits this weekend. And lots more tomato jam. Here’s the recipe…
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 jalapeño or other peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced, or red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste.
1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan, Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.
2. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool and refrigerate until ready to use; this will keep at least a week.
Makes about 1 pint
Reader Comments (19)
Oh I've got to make this. It will be the perfect way to use up our garden tomatoes. Thanks for sharing.
I am on a diet where I can't have sugar, so I was thinking of replacing the sugar and using this on some of my dishes. Would it be an appropriate replacement for ketchup? I'm not sure how to use it, but based on the description, I thought I might be able to use it this way?
This would be a wonderful replacement for ketchup... I hadn't thought of that, but wow, what a great idea! You could try replacing the sugar with agave syrup or stevia. I'm curious how that might come out. If you try it, let us know.
Tomatoes have been my friendly combatant against aging in decade. Your jam is inviting. I definitely will prepare this one.
Looks delicious, and with the goat cheese, gotta try it!
I have been craving tomato jam and this is a great way to use the tomatoes in my garden! Can't wait to cook it up and spread it all over sandwiches & more! Thanks!
The Dinner Bellle for Kimberlybelle.com
This jam? astounding, sensational, remarkable, spectacular, stupendous, phenomenal! Used half the sugar, aleppo pepper, red pepper flakes and cayenne. It would make rubber bands taste good. Could puree and use as a BBQ sauce too. Love that we found this recipe.
I made this jam yesterday and am going to make a double batch again this weekend... Do you think it will freeze well? It's so flavorful and would be great to have in the winter when tomatoes are "less than appetizing"
I do think this would freeze well, Deebie. I'm going to freeze a bunch of it myself. It really will be great to have it on hand this winter.
how lovely!
I like the addition of the cloves :)
I made this with 1/2 cup of Splenda and without the cumin or ginger. I added a 1/2 tsp of dried/ground mustard and used red pepper flakes. I do not like anything spicy, so I wish I'd done a little less of the red pepper flakes, but other than that, I think it turned out really well. I'm going to add it to my meatloaf tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be great!
Thanks for letting us know, Ashley. Good to know that this works fine with a sugar substitute. I wasn't sure how it would cook down without sugar, but it sounds like it did fine. I love the idea of adding it to meatloaf! Thanks again.
you might want to also ck out Pati"s Mexican Table website as she made a Tomatillo Jam that reminded me of this.
She was inspired by a Mexican Chef's recipe.
Thank you for emailing that recipe to me, MT. As soon as my tomatillos are ripe, I will be making it and hopefully sharing with everyone here. Thanks again.
We've made a version of this. For those concerned about the sugar, or who are like my grandma and don't like "sweet" in their tomatoes, you can use salt, to taste. It's extremely versatile and we love it on hamburgers!
Hi! Can you tell me if this recipe can be hot processed and canned for the pantry in sealed jars? Thanks! : ) ... I can hardly wait to try this.
Absolutely, Chey. Instead of cooling the jam, just make sure it's hot enough, fill your jars and proceed with canning. It's amazing stuff!
Patrice, This is just so great especially now with tomato surplus. I cut the sweetening to 3/4 cup and used half sugar and half stevia in the raw and it worked just fine. I wanted to let you know that I first saw your post last summer (and loved it then!!) but made it this winter with a really good quality canned plum tomato and it was very close to taste of summer - especially on toast with some really good bacon. :-) I always look forward to your recipes and commentary and your photos are just eye candy!!
Thank you so much, Susan. So nice of you. We love the tomato jam and I'm so glad you made it work with canned tomatoes! I'm going to try that this winter!! So great to hear from you!!