Fig Jam

When life gives you figs, you feast on figs night and day. You make fig cake. Some fig puree to freeze for the winter months. Pass them along to family, neighbors and friends. Or try a new recipe for fig jam. Our bountiful trees have produced a bonanza of fruit. Over five hundred Brown Turkeys. We have been harvesting fifty to seventy five figs a day for the last ten days. And that is in spite of the pecked fruit we leave for the birds!

The kitchen table is completely over run with receptacles laden with fruit. Jam seems to be the best option. I try a technique I read in the New York Times. Ripe figs are cooked with water and then sugar, simmering the jam over low heat for a long while. Fruit becomes caramelized and jammy. The result is an intense burst of sun-ripened fruit I can enjoy when the summer heat disappears.

FIG JAM

Loosely adapted from The New York Times

Makes 2 cups 

6 cups of figs, trimmed and halved

1 1/2 cups Water

Scant 2 cups Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

Put the figs in a Dutch oven and place over a medium flame.

Add water and bring  to a low boil. Cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drop sugar over the figs. Stir well and continue cooking for another 45 minutes. Stir often. 

The syrup should have thickened. The figs should be soft but not completely dissolved. 

Season with salt. 

Spoon into clean bottles or jars.

Store bottles in the fridge. 

Enjoy with toast, cheese or yogurt. Or any other way you like. 

The jam captures the essence of summer. Preserving figs takes on a new meaning!  

Pin It