Love of food can make you do strange things. I have over six kinds of jam in my fridge – because of my love of jam. So, for a while, I fantasized about making my own jam. This is my first attempt at jam making. The pairing of pears and ginger gives fragrant and delicious jam. It is comfort in a jar, perfect for a warm piece of toast or croissant.

Making jam is relatively simple, and once you have made one kind of jam, others just easily fall into place for you. The instructions for basic jams are all pretty much the same. You only need to make minor modifications for different fruits. Jam making could be addictive, but give it a chance.

Ingredients:

4 lb. ripe but firm pear (e.g., Bosc)
4 cups sugar
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
4 tsp. grated fresh ginger
3 Tbs. pectin

Directions:

Peel and core the pears. Grate the pears using largest holes on a hand grater. Combine the grated pears with sugar, lemon juice, and ginger in large stainless steel pot.

Bring the pear mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 45 minutes until jam has thickened. Stir pectin into ¼ cup jam liquid, and add to jam. Cook 3 minutes more, or until jam is thick.

Meanwhile, sterilize jars and lids. Submerge jars in large pot filled halfway with simmering water, and lids in small pot of simmering water. Keep jars and lids in hot water until ready to use.

Remove jars one at a time from hot water, and fill with jam, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Seal with lids. Place canning rack or cake rack in bottom of large pot, and return sealed jars to pot, adding extra water to cover jars by 1 inch. Bring water to a boil and boil 10 minutes. Remove jars from water, and cool.

This recipe makes 6 8-oz. jars.

Note: The recipes on this site are my original creations or have been adapted from existing recipes with the original sources attributed. All recipes on this site have been tested at least once in my kitchen. Any and all errors are entirely mine.

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