Pumpkin jam recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Jam Jelly and Preserves | 34 comments
Photo: Pumpkin jam
Sweet, tangy with a good ginger fizz, I’m delighted with this recipe. It uses the type of pumpkin grown for carving rather than eating. So you can make your pumpkin Jack O’ lantern and then recycle the pumpkin flesh into jam. Perfect for spreading on toast on a cold winter morning or hot jam tarts for a bonfire night party or even dressing a special steamed sponge pudding.
To be quite honest with you, the flesh of a carving type pumpkin is pretty neutral tasting but it does infuse flavours very well and gives the jam a good texture. Oded Schwartz has a great recipe for pumpkin marmalade in his book Preserving
There’s no need to test for setting point with this recipe. The jam is ready when a wooden spoon pulled across the pan reveals the base of the pan cleanly.
Pumpkin jam recipe
Ingredients:
1.5 kilo pumpkin. (Peeled, deseeded and grated – I used the Magimix for the grating)
300g of lemons (the zest and the juice)
200g of juicing oranges (just the juice)
1 small lime (just the juice)
1 litre of water
100g of fresh ginger (peeled and sliced into fine strips)
1 level tsp of ground ginger – or more to taste
Half a tsp of ground cinnamon
800g of white granulated cane sugar
Method:
In a large heavy bottomed saucepan or Maslin pan, put in all the ingredients except the sugar.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the pumpkin and ginger has softened. Add the sugar and stir constantly until you are certain that it has dissolved completely. At this stage you can add a little more ginger and/or cinnamon to taste.
Bring to the boil and simmer rapidly (on a scale of 1-9 my ring was set to 8 ) stirring every now and then. The jam will gradually reduce and thicken (mine took about an hour).
The jam is ready when a wooden spoon pulled across the pan reveals the base of the pan cleanly.
This recipe made 4 x 450g jars and 3 small jars (like the round one in the photo). To make the pumpkin jam last longer pour into jars with pop down seals and hot water bath for 20 – 30 mins.
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I too ended up with more of a compote than a jam – despite following the setting instructions to the letter! I think it thickened too quickly. I returned it to the pan today with an extra pint of water and 200g jam sugar some lemon juice and ground ginger to counteract the increased sweetness and boiled for about 15mins. Its now lovely and jammy with a gorgeous flavour.
Have just followed this and ended up with a ‘compot’ not a jam. Is the quantity of sugar correct? Usually one would use the same amount of sugar as fruit?
thanks in advance for any returns
Hi Andrew
I think that you didn’t cook it for long enough – you can always return it to the pan and re cook. It needs to simmer away until a wooden spoon dragged through the pan leaves a definite mark on the bottom of the pan. Mine turned out thick and chunky looking.
Same amount of sugar to fruit would have made this too sweet. The lemon juice makes up for that as it is high in pectin.
I made this recipe this afternoon. I cut back a bit on the water and sugar, to suit our tastes, and have 3 1lb jars of deliciousness sitting alongside a rather demonic looking pumpkin on top of the fridge. The jam has a lovely freshness to it and a real zing of ginger, and it’s a real change from all the hedgerow-y jams and jellies I’ve been steeped in recently. It’s a great colour too. Thanks once again,, Fiona for a great recipe.
Lucy – yes, give the butternut squash a whirl, you could have a winner on your hands.
This may seem like a completely idiotic question, but can you make a variation of this recipe with a butternut squash? I have quite a lot and there’s only so much soup and curry I can eat… so was wondering about going down the sweet route…
This sounds lovely! I hope to give it a go on Sunday after carving my pumpkin! I think that I would use it in place of marmalade which I just can’t seem to make
Looks like another cracking recipe, Fiona – I’m looking forward to trying it out. I’ve spotted yet another reference to the Oded Schwartz book, and have just searched for it on Amazon – goodness, what a price! Only 4 used books on offer from £54 – £78! It must be something special and I envy you having a copy. Reviews say it is such good reading and very inspiring – so thanks for passing on the results of your experiments so freely.
Interesting to learn from reviewers that the American pint is only 16 fl oz, not 20 fl oz as here in Britain. That certainly can explain why the water measure given in some recipes seems so excessive to us Brits.
Sounds like a lovely recipe, especially to use as a jam tart filling. And i love that book…shame that it seems so hard to get a hold of these days.
Hi Fiona, I make pumpkin and ginger soup, and can’t wait to try this pumpkin jam, it reads as though it is going to be fabulous on toast, thank you for posting the recipe.
You read my mind Fiona! I was going to go looking for a pumpkin butter recipe, you saved me a search!
Thanks!
Oh wow, that looks amazing! Thank you for posting x