I have been interested in figs for years (see previous post on fig jam from Lebanese figs), in their botany, in their geographic range --I see them everywhere, and in the diversity of the fruit. I was in southwestern Turkey at the end of July and discovered that Turkey is definitely a good place to go when it comes to figs.
These green figs were available everywhere: sold in stands along the highways, in the local village market, and hanging from the trees in gardens and fields.
I decided to make a small batch of jam from them and bought a kilo at the market.
This was my jam-cooking process.
Notes on the measurements
Description of fruit:
Medium large with green skin, pale red interior, not too many seeds for jam making.
I am a lazy cook, I like to call my food preparation 'rustic' but that really means that I don't like to take the time to work on refining the process for presentation. I'm more interested in the idea and the taste of the food. The results of my work would never win a ribbon in the county fair.
I made the jam from unpeeled figs. I DID cut off the thick stem end and removed the flower opening but beyond that, I just chopped the fruit into medium sized pieces.
I combined the fruit, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in the pan. After smelling and tasting, it seemed a little too lemony so I added a bit of sweet aniseed to counter it.
This mixture was brought to a boil and cooked for 20 minutes or so, long enough to kill organisms and stop enzyme activity, and make the jam thicken.
My current apartment isn't equipped with the usual canning tools so I improvised.
I re-used jars and sterilized them in the oven. If I had them, I would use canning jars, but they are not available here. The jars were laid on sides in oven to heat.
I set the oven temperature as low as possible to prevent the jars from breaking.
These were some of the tools used for my kitchen jam project:
The hot jam was ladled into hot jars, the jar rims wiped clean and jars closed.
This micro-batch made three and a half small jars.
Fig jam on fresh bread?
Fig jam and dark chocolate chunks on yoghurt?
Any other ideas?
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I decided to make a small batch of jam from them and bought a kilo at the market.
This was my jam-cooking process.
Medium large with green skin, pale red interior, not too many seeds for jam making.
I made the jam from unpeeled figs. I DID cut off the thick stem end and removed the flower opening but beyond that, I just chopped the fruit into medium sized pieces.
This mixture was brought to a boil and cooked for 20 minutes or so, long enough to kill organisms and stop enzyme activity, and make the jam thicken.
I re-used jars and sterilized them in the oven. If I had them, I would use canning jars, but they are not available here. The jars were laid on sides in oven to heat.
I set the oven temperature as low as possible to prevent the jars from breaking.
- Small pan for sterilizing jar tops
- Tongs for handling hot jars and jar tops
- Ladle and funnel to facilitate jar filling
- And clean cloth to wipe the rim of the jars.
Fig jam and dark chocolate chunks on yoghurt?
Any other ideas?
