Rhubarb isn't a fruit but makes a nice jam. Most recipes produce more of a compote where the vegetable is cooked down to a uniform texture, but I wanted a jam with distinct pieces of rhubarb. This recipe draws off the water and cooks it down separately, then gives just a brief cook with the rhubarb pieces to soften them but not let them disintegrate. It requires a one-day maceration period before cooking the jam. To cut the small pieces, thin stalks can just be sliced; thicker stalks can be split once or twice lengthwise, then sliced.
Ingredients
For 3 pints
- 1000 g rhubarb
- 900 g sugar
- 1 package pectin
Steps
- Slice the rhubarb into roughly 1-cm pieces.
- Stir together the rhubarb and sugar, cover, and set aside to macerate overnight. During the first few hours, stir occasionally to reincorporate sugar that has settled at the bottom.
- The next day, fill a canning kettle with water to the appropriate level and bring to boil. Reduce heat and keep ready at the boil until the jam is ready. Sterilize canning jars and lids.
- Place a strainer over a pot with at least three times the capacity of the batch. Drain the liquid off the rhubarb pieces into the pot. Set the rhubarb pieces aside.
- Bring batch to a boil. Keep at the boil until the syrup is slightly higher than the jellying point, about 225 °F.
- Stir in the pectin.
- Add the rhubarb pieces to the syrup. Return to the boil.
- Continue to cook, stirring frequently but gently, until rhubarb pieces soften and turn translucent but still hold their shape, about 20 minutes. In that time the mixture should reach the jellying point, around 221 °F.
- Can and seal jars in canning kettle 10 minutes.