Recipe - Apple and Ginger Jam

From Harvest to Plate - Sun 6 Oct 2019

Contributed by Sarah Fenn

Ingredients:

2.75 kg cooking apples
1.15 litres water
2 teaspoons ground ginger
finely grated zest and juice of 4 lemons
75g crystallised ginger or stem ginger in syrup
2.75 kg sugar, warmed

Method:

• Peel, core and roughly chop up the apples. Put the peel and cores on a square of muslin and tie up tightly into a bag with a long piece of string. Place sugar in an ovenproof shallow pan and warm in a 120°C oven for about 15 minutes.
• Put the apples and water into a preserving pan with the ground ginger, lemon zest and juice. Tie the muslin bag to the pan handle. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until the apples are soft. Discard the bag, squeezing it first to extract all the juice.
• Chop the crystallised or stem ginger; set aside. Add the warmed sugar to the apples, and stir over a low heat, until the sugar has dissolved completely.
• Increase the heat and boil the mixture rapidly, without stirring, for 10 minutes, or until it reaches setting point. Remove the pan from the heat to test. The sugar thermometer should read 104°C (220°F). If you do not have a sugar thermometer, test for set with the cold plate test.
• With the pan off the heat, lightly skim off any scum from the surface of the jam, using a long metal spoon. Stir in the ginger and pour the jam into warmed sterilised jars, to within 3mm of the tops. Seal the jars and label.

Makes about 4.15 kg