Fig Jam

We are lucky to have five green fig trees in our garden; they seem to get better and better as they mature. This year, our first harvest was 4 kilos of ripe fruit for jam and a few kilos of insect infested or over ripe fruit for the compost. After searching in our conserves recipe books we drew a blank for fig jam so I consulted my primary source for all cooking dilemmas: my mum. This helped a bit but my secondary source was Delia on line for what to do with sterilizing jars and other such hints and tips. Here is her 10 steps to jam making: 

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/preserves/ten-steps-to-jam-making.html

Of course I did not follow this exactly, but what I did below worked for our figs.

No pectin, no jam sugar.. just granulated sugar and lemon and lime juice boiled rapidly for hours!

Foodstuff you will need: 

1 kg of figs (I made this with 3.3kg and just multiplied it up)

350g sugar

125ml lemon and/or lime juice

125ml water

Equipment:

Multiple sterilised jam (glass) jars and lids (plastic containers with lids works too)

Very large pot

Large wooden spoon

Saucers (placed in a fridge) and teaspoon

Measuring jug and scales

How to throw it together

Chop the stems off the figs and cut into quarters. (the figs should not contain any bad bits)

Toss the fig pieces with the sugar in the large pot and leave to stand for 15 minutes. No heat is required.

At the end of this time, all or most of the sugar should be dissolved. The figs should look juicy!

Add the lemon juice and water and bring to a boil on a high heat.

Boil rapidly over a moderate heat, stirring from time to time. Be patient; if the jam runs off the wooden spoon you need to boil it some more. It took me 3 hours for 3.3.kg before the jam looked like setting.

Ignore any scummy bits, these should disappear with a good stir and more boiling.

When you think the jam looks like it is setting, (drops thickly from the side of the wooden spoon) Take the saucer from the fridge. Use a teaspoon to skim off some jam and put it on the saucer. Place back into the fridge for 2 minutes. If the jam has a wrinkled appearance when you push it, it is ready. If not tip the sample back into the pot and continue to boil.

When it is ready (see step above) remove pot from heat and stand, (How long is up to you Delia says wait a bit but not too long)

Spoon the jam into the glass jars leaving a few cm of space at the top. Close the jars and let cool at room temperature.

Store the jam in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Delicious on toast for breakfast!