Home made Rhubarb Jam

Jo4

My Gran gave me some rhubarb which she has grown herself and I wanted to try and make jam with it. Has anyone got any tried and tested recipes? I think I will make rhubarb crumble with the rest of it and have hot custard this evening!!

squeaky

I haven't found a rhubarb jam as yet, but if you want to use up some more of your rhubarb there are recipes for a rhubarb drink ---> Click Here


We also have a thread which includes rhubarb fool and also a link to a great site on rhubarb. To join that thread Click Here

KTFrugal

Rhubarb and strawberry jam is a good one, using equal weights of each fruit. The acidity of the rhubarb helps set the jam. You can also make rhubarb and ginger jam, very delish, using the preserved ginger that comes in a syrup. To about a pound of rhubarb, use 3-4 knobs of ginger, depending on how spicy you want the end result to be.

The usual equation for one pound of fruit to one pound of sugar works here and gives a soft set jam that can be used as a fruit sauce for cakes, jam etc.

bugs

The last recipe on this article is for rhubarb jam and if you've not made much jam it links to other articles on how-to. Not my recipes but the writer has been doing this for years and the recipes and advice are, as far as I know, all from a well-used notebook! Apparently this is an excellent time to be making jam, I mean to see if there's enough to be scrabbled from my garden to have a go (never done it before either )

Jo4

bugs wrote:

The last recipe on this article is for rhubarb jam and if you've not made much jam it links to other articles on how-to. Not my recipes but the writer has been doing this for years and the recipes and advice are, as far as I know, all from a well-used notebook! Apparently this is an excellent time to be making jam, I mean to see if there's enough to be scrabbled from my garden to have a go (never done it before either )

Thanks for responding! The site looks like what I have been searching for! Good luck with your jam making.

Jo4

Thanks for all the replies, they have all been useful! :cool:

bugs

bugs wrote:

Apparently this is an excellent time to be making jam

How dumb do I sound?! I meant for making rhubarb jam...apparently you want the sturdier, stronger flavoured stuff that is about at this time of year, rather than the earlier forced pink stuff.

Glad to have helped Jo4, good luck with yours in return (we made gooseberry the other night mmmm)

Ted_Hutchinson

Possibly too late now (Elderflowers are over here) but Bugs may want to make a note in her gooseberry jam recipe that Elderflower heads added to the gooseberries while they are softening and taken out before adding the sugar adds a muscat/wine flavour which adult tastes really appreciate.

It might also be useful to remind folks that a pressure cooker can be used to make jam. Particularly at the fruit cooking/softening stage. Not only is this quicker, the blackcurrants I did last night just took 2 minutes at low pressure but would have taken 20 in a jam pan, but also you only need 1/2 the usual amount of water. This means it's quicker to get to the rolling boil point and you've less water to boil off.

If I were doing Rhubarb and ginger Jam for instance I would use my pressure cooker like this.

• 3lb rhubarb
• 2 lemons juiced
• 1oz bruised root ginger
• 1/2pt of water
• 3lb sugar
• 4 oz crystallised ginger

Put the rhubarb (cut into 1"chunks) into pressure cooker with lemon juice. Wrap bruised ginger, lemon shells/pips in muslin and add with water. Just bring to low/medium pressure then allow to cool slowly. (it wouldn't need any time at pressure)
When pressure down remove the muslin bag add the warmed sugar and crystallised ginger. Bring to rolling boil and boil for 10 mins (approx) Test setting point and then bottle in hot jars, if your using metal lids you need to get these on while the jam is still very hot.


Those who don't have a pressure cooker would need to use 1pt of water. It would probably take 10 mins to cook the rhubarb and longer to boil the jam.
But providing you halve the amount of water you can adapt most jam recipes for pressure cooker use.
Much the same would apply to those who would prefer to use a microwave to cook the fruit initially. This would possibly have the advantage of improving the colour of the cooked fruit but you could also use half the usual amount of water.

Jo4

Ted_Hutchinson Thanks for taking the time to respond! :T The next time I try to make jam I might try this method.

KTFrugal

Ted,

I never thought of using the pressure cooker...do you have to do small batches? I have 4lbs of blackcurrants waiting to go - should I do 2 batches of 2 lbs?

Thanks in advance,

KT

singlehouseholder

Morning all. I was going to make some mango chutney and armes myself with the recipe thanks to your good selves. However after finding the christmas pot empty, with no mango's in stock, I have decided to make some rhubarb jam instead. My problem be this.... I have lots of rhubarb in freezer, i'm going to defrost rhubarb, but how much sugar do I add? Is there a formula like 2 parts rhubarb 1 part sugar, or smething like that? Thanks for your help. Going to pot it up in little kilner jars and dish out with christmas presents....