Tomato Jam

This is probably the last tomato recipe for a while, mainly because it was the last thing we made from the flat of tomatoes that we purchased. Or, you could say we saved the best for last, even though this is the first time we’ve made jam from tomatoes. It might seem odd to use tomatoes to make jam, but it shouldn’t. After all, we’ve all learned that tomatoes are a fruit (although the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that tomatoes are a vegetable, really, look it up), so, why not use them for jam?

Of course, this jam might not be the best choice to go along with peanut butter; it’s quite savory, and is better suited to cheese, perhaps grilled cheese, which is the first way we tried it. Since then, we also know that it’s great on crackers and cheese, and, since it came from Egg Shop, by Nick Korbee, we’d guess that it would be great on an egg sandwich, too.

Ingredient discussion:

The original recipe called for more garlic than we used, plus it included scallions and flat-leaved parsley folded in after baking. We didn’t like the idea of folding raw vegetables into the cooked jam, so we simply omitted them. Feel free to put them back in, if you like. For the hot sauce, we used our own version, made from the liquid of yellow hot peppers that we pickled. We followed our Pickled Jalapenos recipe, using yellow hots and we used some of the brine after the peppers had infused it. And, don’t forget, use good tomatoes; you might have to hit the farmers’ markets to find them, but it’s worth it.

Procedure in detail:

Peel tomatoes. As you saw over the last couple of posts, we don’t really peel tomatoes unless it’s necessary; for jam, we thought it would be. Don’t worry, it’s really easy; we just don’t want to peel a hundred tomatoes, twenty, sure, but not many more than that. So, bring a saucepan of water to a full boil. Don’t bother salting the water, as the tomatoes will only be in there for a few seconds. While the water is coming to a boil, use a sharp knife to cut a small “x” on the bottom of each tomato and remove the core, if needed. Drop a couple of tomatoes into the boiling water, and, in a few seconds, you should see the tomato skins loosen. Leave them in the water for about 10 seconds, then use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a colander to cool. You can run cold water over them, or use an ice bath to cool them, but you’re going to be cooking these tomatoes, anyway, so it won’t matter. Once cool, the skins will peel off easily.

Chop tomatoes. Cut each tomato in half to look for bad spots. Remove the bad spots, and any large tough cores you may have missed, and place the tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to chop the tomatoes roughly. You don’t want a puree; instead, try to get pieces about 1/4 inch in size.

Drain tomatoes. You want somewhat dry tomatoes for this recipe; otherwise, they’ll take forever to bake into jam. So, line a colander with muslin (or several layers of cheesecloth, or use a large fine-mesh strainer) and scrape the tomatoes into it. You can save the liquid that drains off for another use — we didn’t — such as soup stock. Let the tomatoes drain for about 45 minutes. Try wrapping the muslin up and around the tomatoes and squeezing out some more liquid. Continue squeezing until the tomatoes look partly dry and clump together.

Make jam. In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, garlic, jalapeno, maple syrup, vinegar, olive oil and hot sauce. If needed, you can hold the tomatoes for a few hours by placing them in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spread jam. Transfer the tomato mixture to a large rimmed baking sheet and spread into an even layer. You should have a layer that’s at most 1/2 inch thick, but, if you have more than that, don’t worry; your jam might take longer in the oven, but it’ll still be good. You might also worry about cleanup; you’ll have to a bit of scrubbing on the pan, but not much, as the acid in the tomato and the oil helps to keep anything from sticking to the pan.

Bake. Slide into the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. No need to stir, but you can rotate the pan about halfway through. As the baking time comes to an end, start checking the tomatoes more often. When done, they’ll have a few browned, and, perhaps, even a blackened spot or two, and will look thick, like jam.

Season. Stir the tomatoes around, taste, and add kosher salt as needed, stirring to incorporate before tasting again.

Pack. Transfer the tomato jam to a clean, non-reactive container such as a glass jar, and refrigerate.

This stuff is awesome. It’s a great way to use tomatoes, and results in a slightly spicy, slightly sweet, yet very savory jam. It’s great with cheese, and we really recommend eating it slightly warmed for better flavor, but it’s really, really tasty. An easy five stars, even though you have to peel tomatoes.