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Pumpkin jam recipe

 

Photo: Pumpkin jam

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 and I took that as my starting point. Combining the pumpkin with orange and lemon juice and a decent wedge of finely chopped fresh ginger. I went on to add ground ginger, cinnamon and finally the juice of a small lime. The last ingredient seemed to bring all the flavours together and produce a great tasting jam.

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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34 Comments

  1. Just made Ur pumpkin jam … It is scrummy!!! First time I’ve made jam like this… Thank u so much for sharing recipe!!! I have used the whole pumpkin .. roasted the seeds (yum) and made the jam (yum yum) and the hens got the rest !!!

  2. I saw the original post you were talking about but read your comment and wanted to try yours. Everyone says you can’t can pumpkin but my Mother always did. Did you water bath or not? Thank you!!

  3. Hi I have not made this yet, as I am looking for a recipe that can be kept on the shelf. I noticed that you have not put the storing instructions. If I hot bath it, can I keep it on the shelf and for how long?
    Thanks Mary

    • Bushman AOD

      I’ve made jams for the last 5 years and I don’t hot bath, instead I stick them fresh from washing into an oven set to 160 degrees Celsius for 10 mins, I then pull each jar out as needed from the still hot oven. I have jam last up until now that are still yet to be opened so going on 6 years, from the outside they look fine, I did open some 5 year jam a few months ago and they were superb.
      Online, most people will say 1 year due to either health laws or to cover themselves.

  4. Augusta

    First time I’ve ever left a comment but this was so good I had to! I used tart mandarins instead of oranges and it came out tasting like Seville marmalade.

  5. Caroline

    I found the lemon & orange quoted in grams confusing so I referred back to the Oded Schwartz recipe I found on another website & used 3 lemons & 2 oranges. Very pleased with the result.

  6. Anna @ Camera & Clementine

    Hi! I love your recipe, and have made a batch a couple of month ago now, very tasty. Then I made a new version 🙂 and I posted about it on my blog, and linked to your original recipe. You can see it here if interested www.cameraandclementine.wordpress.com

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