Pear Tomato Preserves
I have lived on a farm all my life, so I have always had a garden. I can a lot of my garden-grown fruits and veggies and I make these wonderful preserves every year.—Evelyn Stearns, Alto Pass, Illinois
Ingredients
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 medium lemons, chopped
- 1 cup water
- 2 pounds yellow pear tomatoes, chopped
Reviews
Ok so disregard my last review about the water. You need that with this recipe. There are so many directions missing in this recipe but it is a great recipe. First off. Cook your sugar, lemons, and spices for about 10 minutes to get it thick. THEN add your tomatoes. Also you can chop the entire lemon for your recipe as it’s going to be candied anyhow. It’s up to you if you want to leave find out but I like the whole thing in. Also chop your tomatoes pretty small so you don’t have huge pieces. Let the whole thing cook for about 45-60 minutes at about 200 degrees. DO NOT turn your back and not stir the whole time or it will burn and be ruined. You may be able to lower your heat but may take longer to thicken. That’s just what I do. This is a great recipe but not for a beginner due to lack of instructions. I’ve made 3 batches now and really like it. You will get 2 pints of done correctly.
With an abundance of pear tomatoes I set out to find recipes to use them up. I'm new to canning and preserving and this was one of the first preserve recipes I've tried.I found the recipe straight forward and easy to follow. Having just made another pear tomato preserve recipe that called for seeding the tomatoes, I did spend a little extra time removing some of the seeds. After cooking for the specified time, I checked to see if it was gelling using the spoon in the freezer test. It wasn't gelling very well, and I suppose I could have continued to cook it longer, but I opted to added about a tablespoon or so of pectin to be sure it set up right.I did taste a bit of the preserves while it was still warm and was concerned because of the overpowering flavor of the spices, and I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to throw away all of my hard work. Now that the preserves have been chilled I don't find the the spice flavor quite as overpowering, but I must say I think the quantities of the spices should be cut back. I love food with a lot of flavor, but this is just too much for me. I would probably make this again, but I would certainly not use 2 teaspoons of cloves. I'd probably cut that back the cloves to 3/4 to 1 teaspoon, the cinnamon to 3/4 tablespoon, while leaving the ginger at 1 teaspoon.I am not exactly sure how I will use this jam yet. I think for sure I'd break it out for the holidays to mix in some cream cheese for a spread. It might be a nice glaze for ham too. If you have any other ideas for how to use this up, please leave a comment or contact me.All in all I think it's a good recipe, but only if the spices are cut back a bit.