My First Jam: Figs!

So maybe the title sounds a bit like a kid’s story book (“My First Tooth”? I never read those…) but you could have given me a quarter and I couldn’t have been any more excited than I already was.

Figs are in season now! Not here, I know, but in California and in Greece. So much for my locavore cred. It’s actually my dream to eat a fig fresh off a tree in Greece. California I don’t care so much about because it’s about a quarter as romantic a notion. Not that I would turn down a trip to California. What am I, well-insulated? Nope. Montreal’s cold! By the time the figs get here from foreign lands they’re good, but my tongue knows from how good they are now that they could be that much better. It anticipates the sweetness tinged with the tiniest bit of acidity that brings out the flavour that’s missing.

So I went to my fruit guy, Leopoldo, in Jean-Talon Market. He still doesn’t know he’s a my fruit guy. Sometimes I speak French with him, and sometimes I speak English with him, and I haven’t gotten up the guts to speak Italian with him because me and him and romantic notions like speaking Italian don’t jive. Just imagine us jiving…Ridiculous.

He had boxes of fresh figs from both California (green and black kinds) and Greece (just black). The Greek ones were larger, plumper, and looked juicier. The Californians were slightly cheaper and smaller. So I bought a basket of green Californians, a basket of black Californians, and a box of Greeks. Into my Granny cart the box went, and the delicate baskets over my shoulder. Of course, there was no way I was waiting the 50 minute commute home to sample the figs…they are sprayed because they’re imported, I think, so I did find some clean running water first.

Leopoldo said his favourites were the Greeks, but this is the first time we disagree. The Greeks were the most beautiful inside, and the juiciest, but the flavour was lacking. Looks were deceiving because the greens were actually the most delicious, though the skin was thicker and thus the texture not as nice. It wasn’t like these were going to go to waste, but my plan was to take the ones I liked the least and make jam out of them. So the Greeks got jammed…after I ate a few more, just to make sure I was right.

Ingredients:
2 lbs fresh figs (you really have to buy a lot so you don’t feel bad about cooking them. Just think of the fig jam you’ll get to eat in the middle of winter when there are no fresh ones to be found. It’s not about denying yourself now, it’s about treating yourself later)
1 1/3 cup cane sugar
zest and juice of 1 small lemon

Remove the tips of the figs if there are any. Some of the Greek ones didn’t have any, so that was easy.
In a large saucepan combine the figs with the sugar, lemon juice and zest. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often. This takes awhile.

Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Then remove the lid and continue simmering, stirring often, until the mixture thickens. The original recipe said nothing about chopping the figs, so they’d been cooking whole this entire time, but that’s very un-jam-like. So after an hour and fifteen minutes I crushed them with a slotted spoon. It made the jam thicken up faster, but you really need to stir often so it doesn’t burn to the pot.

You want it to get to the gel stage, which is thicker than you think. To test to make sure it’s done put a small plate or saucer in the freezer for a few minutes, then take it out and put a little drop of the hot fig mixture on it. Then put it back in the freezer for 1 minute. Take it out and press the top of the jam down lightly with a finger. If it wrinkles a little then it’s done.

While figs are cooking, you need to prepare the jars and lids. Sterilize: Wash jars, lids, and tightening rings with hot soapy water. Put a big pot of water on to boil (a canning pot – it has to be big enough to fit about eight 125mL cans or four 250mL jars so that the jars are covered on top by 2 inches of water). Boil the rings and cans (not the lids) for about 20 minutes. Then just leave the jars in the hot water (you can turn off the heat but leave the lid of the pot on) until you’re ready to fill the jars.

Put some more water in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Then reduce the heat to low and add the jar lids. You never want to boil the lids because they seal with wax and so you don’t want to melt it all in the water. Always use new lids, but you can use old (clean) jars and rings. Leave the lids in the slightly simmering water until you’re ready to use them. the recipe didn’t say how long to simmer, but I figured 10 minutes was more than plenty. They’re new so you don’t need to sterilize them in the same way as the jars and rings I guess?

Have some cloth towels ready (or something onto which you can set the hot jars down) and remove the jars and rings from the hot water. My slotted spoon/tongs methods works well. None of this fancy jar lifter business. French women probably didn’t have such contraptions when they started making jam. You kind of need to do this relatively quickly, but if you’re slow, it’s okay as long as you don’t put the cooled jars back into boiling water directly. Since the heat is turned off on the large pot you should be fine.

Fill the jars to the bottom lip (1/2 inch headspace). Wipe the rims of the jars and the threads with wet paper towel. Place the warmed lids on the jars using tongs (don’t touch the rims now) and then you can use your hands (but still preferably tongs) to put on the rings. Then you’ll have to use your hands to tighten the rings, but that’s fine since the rims are covered.

You kind of need to create some sort of rack to put at the bottom of the large canning pot of almost boiling water that you used to sterilize the jars since the filled jars shouldn’t touch the bottom of the pot. I used a vegetable steamer since my cake rack was too big. Cake racks should be circular, I’ve decided. One day I will design a circular cake rack that is multipurpose. Then my life will be complete. I can make jam and cake using the same rack. What else could a girl want? Well, not diabetes, I suppose.

Place the filled jars back in the water on top of your make-shift or purchased rack and bring the water back to a boil (if it stayed at a boil from before you save time, you need to fill the jars really fast so that they don’t have time to cool off before they go back in the water. Boil the jars for 10 minutes. Start the timer only when the water comes back to a boil.

After 10 minutes take out the jar and set them upside down. I don’t know if this helps but I’ve seen it in some recipes and I figure it can’t hurt. When the jars are cool, tighten the lids a little more, and you’re done! Ooh! Labels! Just in case you get all the jams you make messed up…yeah…right…

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

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