I made this recipe yesterday and I’m really happy with how this turned out! The previous batch I made was too sweet for my taste, so I used half-sweet jam sugar this time. Because of the lower sugar content, shelf life is 12 months.
The recipe yielded me a little bit over 3 pint jars, I poured the leftover jam in a small dish and had jam on toast for breakfast and dinner.
1.6 kg marrow/zucchini/courgette
640 gr half-sweet jam sugar (check the bag for directions just in case) or 1.6 kg of regular jam sugar If jam sugar isn’t a thing where you live, then 640 gr sugar + pectin for not-so-sweet jam or 1.6 kg + pectin for sweet jam
80gr ginger
105 ml of lemon juice
1 bag of pectin powder (25 gr)
Cut the marrow into tiny pieces. I used the chopper that came with my stick mixer. I chose not to bother with peeling them because the skin is perfectly edible but if small pieces of green in the jam bother you, you should peel them.
Peel and cut the ginger in the same way.
Put the marrow in a preservering pan with 30 ml of lemon juice, cook on medium heat, stir a lot, until the pieces become soft.
Add the ginger, sugar, pectine powder and remaining lemon juice. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Bring to a rolling boil and let simmer for 15-30 minutes until the marrow is completely soft and the jam has reached setting point (test a drop on a cold plate to check this). Mine was done after 20-25 minutes last night.
I only found out through @Edel a couple of weeks ago! Apparantly marrow is the word the English use for a mature courgette/zucchini. I had two that I somehow didn’t notice until they were massive. They aren’t great for cooking because they lose flavour when they’re so big, but apparantly it’s a popular jam in the UK. In my language we don’t have a word for that, they’re just overgrown courgettes!
I found dozens and dozens of different recipes once I googled the correct term, so I guess it’s at least popular among people with allotments who need to get rid of them? (Like me!) Not sure all of those jars of jam actually get finished. Most recipes include ginger for flavour but I’ve also seen recipes with orange juice, apple juice and cinnamon.
Took me a second to place where I heard the term “marrow” first. It was an Agatha Christy novel I read in high school where Poirot tried to retire to the countryside and grow Marrows!
This actually sounds delicious. I only allow myself one new craft at a time but perhaps I will take up canning after I finish with the book making swap. Hopefully I will still have enough to harvest by then!
Really? I had no idea that wasn’t a universal thing. In my country, half sweet sits on the shelf right next to the regular jam sugar and packets of pectin powder. The only difference is it contains more pectin than regular jam sugar.
I think you can probably also use a lower amount of regular jam sugar and add another 25 gr of pectin powder, but you’d have to try that out to be certain. The general ratio sugar/fruit for half sweet jam is 500/1250. On the package of the brand of pectin powder I use, it says it’s even possible to make unsweetened jam with 250 gr sugar + 25 gr pectin powder / 1 kg fruit. I haven’t tried it but it’s supposed to be shelf stable for 6 months.
Ahhhh, see our pectin doesn’t come sweetened. We buy a packet of pectin, and use granulated sugar we would also use in baking. There are a few varieties of pectins that can use little or no sugar, but most need the addition of at least some sugar.
Good to know! Jam sugar (sugar with added pectin) is widely available in Europe in different ratios of pectin: sugar. It’s slightly more expensive than regular granulated sugar but it saves a lot of hassle. My family never used to use any added pectin at all, they said that adding pectin ruins the taste and consistency. But I’ve never really noticed that. Adding pectin is a very quick and basically foolproof way to make jam.
I always think it’s so funny that in our globalized world some ingredients that are widely available staples in one country are totally unknown in another country. Like all those recipes online that call for mysterious ingredients like Bisquick and Velveeta! I’ve figured out how to replace them but there’s no comparable product on the market in my country. We do have baking soda but it’s in the cleaning supplies aisle, not in the baking aisle.
I know what you mean about such vast differences for what’s available. Our “International” aisle in the grocery store is generally half pasta, and half Mexican foods like tortillas and salsa. But very slowly a few new things have found their way in. We now have a more diverse section of Asian foods, and one little section of Israeli foods, and part of one shelf of English foods. I’ve always wanted to try making treacle tart after reading about it in Harry Potter books, but golden syrup isn’t a food you can generally buy here. It just doesn’t exist. Now I can find that, wine gums, PG tips, and Jammy Dodgers.
