Pineapple Jam

Have never prepared jam but prefer to spread it over every bite? Minimum ingredients, easy to prepare and great to taste; that’s the success recipe for refreshingly tasty pineapple jam for every other pineapple lover who is new to cooking!!!

A perfect way to start a bright sunny day with homemade pineapple jam!!!

While on a stroll in the market once, I found fresh pineapples and was tempted to purchase them, so much so that I ended up buying more than I needed. The pineapples were indeed tasty and we ate the most of them raw. I checked my fridge and found that we were out of stock for jam. So I asked myself why not prepare jam out of the remaining fruit. It hardly took any time to cook (and in even lesser time to get over). Trust me. The jam didn’t even last a week at home. Pineapple imparts a unique flavour to any dish prepared with it.

The readily available jams in the supermarkets in multiple sizes, colours and bottles often makes us lethargic over the idea of preparing one, but the happiness that you get with the satisfaction of having made it at home is second to none!!! And to top on it, if it is easy to prepare, is there any reason to still go behind those tempting colourful racks ?

Its more practical for me to prepare in small batches than prepare in bulk to last for months together. One reason being, less storage space and the other and the most important reason being, I get to cook and taste different varieties of jam in frequent intervals.

This jam goes well with almost everything, be it with your regular breads or with rotis or chapathis or with tarts and pancakes.

All said and done, it is widely believed that jam has sugar and so, isn’t good for health. Well, I would rather say, it also has fruit in it, which is very good for health and cannot be ignored. Basically, food of any form, should be consumed in moderation. Excess of anything isn’t good.

Below are few jam recipes that might interest you:

Cherry Jam

Strawberry Jam

Mixed Berries Jam

Carrot Jam

This fruit based delicacy might interest you!

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Makes: 300 gms

Ingredients:

Fresh pineapple (Grated): 1 cup

Water: 0.5 cup

Jam Sugar/Gelier Zucker/ Sugar: 3/4th cup

Lemon juice: 1 tbsp.

Method:

• Over medium heat cook the grated pineapple with water for 15 minutes

• Add the gelier zucker / jam sugar / sugar, lemon juice and cook for another 10 minutes or until the mass reaches the jam consistency

• Remove from heat and let it cool

• Transfer to a dry air tight container and refrigerate it  or serve it fresh with bread !!!

Note :

• If refrigerated, the jam stays fresh for upto 2 to 3 months. If planning to store it for months, ensuring that the cans are properly sterilised is very important. Do sterilise the container well enough before transferring the jam to it
• Jams are usually sugar based and may not be diabetes friendly. To make it diabetes friendly, you may replace the sugar content with stevia
• You may add cinnamon or cloves or cardamom if you want to enhance and spice up the flavour of the jam
• If you are new to making jams, I would say, prepare it in small instalments:
  • Preparation is easier and takes lesser time with lesser quantities of the inherent ingredients
  • There is no way that your family gets bored eating just one variety of the jam as it gets over sooner
  • The risk of burning the jam during cooking is lesser.

Pineapple jam stories :

Homemade jams are always a treat to have and a perfect snack companion during your vacations. To add up on to this, the satisfaction that you have when you make it at home for your family is something which cannot be expressed.

I remember mom making the pineapple jam when we were kids. My parents, being very fond of gardening, were always on the lookout for good plants and best nurseries with lot of innovative ideas. Those days, searching for something never happened over google, but by word of mouth or going around in person. As part of the hunt, they came across Soans Farm which is near a small town Moodabidri, about 40 kilometers from Mangalore. They are quite innovative when it comes to multiple crops and farming. And my parents liked the pineapples there. Like always, my parents purchased as many pineapples as our car boot could accommodate. We distributed them to our cousins and still had quite a lot left with us. The pineapples were so sugary and sweet. It was nothing less than a celebration eating the fruit raw. My mom came up with an idea of bottling the jam out of them as we all were jam lovers and in a way could relish the sweetness of the fresh pineapples for an extended period.

What a memory. I have always believed that this fast paced life leaves a whole lot bunch of memories and experiences, some good and some bad, which we appreciate better when we pen them down. This pineapple jam story is one such memory, which otherwise was long forgotten!!!

While in Germany, I visit almost all grocery shops around, atleast once a week. It gives me an idea as to which products are better in which store, in terms of quality and cost. During one such hunt, I found a whole lot of fresh pineapples in a nearby Turkish store and I couldn’t resist. Apart from eating them raw, I prepared quite a few dishes and delicacies, pineapple jam being one.