A bowl of Heirloom Tomatoes
This year I made our favorite jam with heirloom tomatoes that we grew; I combined yellow, orange and red tomatoes and my jam is beautiful dark amber color. Next batch I hope I have enough all yellow. Our house smelled wonderful (almost like Christmas Wassail) as I was making the jam and my daughter said it was strange because it was 100 degrees outside and it smelled like winter time!
I use good brand spices such as Spice Island or McCormick when making this and recommend that you do the same; I found a Saigon Cinnamon that is by Spice Island that smells like red hots and has a wonderful flavor, try it the next time you buy Cinnamon.
This jam is wonderful on a block of cream cheese served with crackers! But more on that later….
3 cups prepared tomatoes (about 2¼ pounds)
1½ teaspoon grated lemon zest/peel
½ teaspoon ground allspice½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
4½ cups sugar
1 box powdered pectin
¼ cup lemon juice
To Prepare Fruit: Wash firm-ripe tomatoes. Scald, peel and chop tomatoes. I chop what I can but the majority of my tomatoes I put in a piece of muslin and squeeze the juice through, that way I don’t have any seeds in my jam.
Cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Measure 3 cups tomatoes into a sauce pot and add lemon peel, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.
To Make Jelly: Place prepared fruit into a sauce pot. Add lemon juice. Measure sugar and set aside. Stir powdered pectin into prepared fruit. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly.
Add sugar all at once. Stir and bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Then boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off foam. Pour hot jam immediately into hot, sterile canning jars, leaving ¼-inch head space. Wipe jar rims and adjust lids. Process for 5 minutes in boiling water bath.
Yield: About 5 -6 half-pint jars
Spiced Tomato Jelly/jam
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