Homemade Tomato Saffron Marmalade Recipe

My late Father just adored tomato jam, and it was good on a nice fresh slice of sourdough bread dotted with sweet cream butter which he’d churned. We shared a lot of little things like that. But truly good tomato jam, out of a store is darn hard to find. I tossed out a lot of mostly full, but disappointing jars of it over the years, which is why I was determined to make my own.

I’ve been in the jam making game a long time, starting with jellies when I was about 13 years old ( sigh: I’m going to be 55 this month but it’s better than the alternative, droopy upper arms and all ).

A couple years ago, I decided to see if other people liked my homemade jams as well as my family so I bought dozens upon dozens of jars and 20 lb bags of sugar and supplies and got with it. I made probably 50 cases of jam that summer, and sales were brisker than my two hands could work.It was fun but exhausting. The Tomato Marmalade was a sure fire hit, getting orders long after I’d run out of steam and wanted to quit.

What I’m going to do here is provide you with the recipe and a few photographs of the process, which in the cooking and jar filling stages is pretty similar to my other post on jam making technique - so just follow along there. Right here, I’ll only show the differences which are most in the preparation stage on the oranges and such.

Cindy Ryans’

Tomato Saffrom Marmalade

Makes 7-8 half pint jars

2 cups of mixed red, orange or yellow tomatos. Preferably organic heirloom varieties. Roughly cut.

Four lemons, juiced with a total of 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice ( DO NOT substitute bottled lemon juice)

One large navel orange, peel removed and sliced thin. Pith removed. Flesh cut up.

1/4 cup finely julienned fresh basil leaves

1/2 of a large sweet red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons diced candied ginger

8-10 threads of saffron ( due to the expense of Saffron you can omit this )

1-2 tablespoons of Red Pepper Flakes, depending on your tolerance for ‘heat’

1-1/2 tablespoons butter

7-1/2 cups sugar

2 full packets of Certo Liquid Pectin plus 2 tablespoons

The key to success in canning is to get everything ready and organized first, before you ever turn on the stove. Get your equipment out and cleaned, your jars, lids and rings, too.

Prep all the ingredients first and then you just toss them into the pot. I even do quick cleanup after the fruit/veg prep to save time afterward or between batches.

Not everybody knows how to deal with the citrus in marmalade making but once you get the technique down, and be sure to use a good quality sharp knife, you’ll be experimenting with other types of marmalade all winter long.

The secret is to slice both ends of the orange off so it doesn’t roll away. Then working from the top down make the larger cuts of peel which you take and slice thin. Some people like a ‘thick cut’ marmalade, while I’ve always preferred thin.

Make it your way, but just lay the large slices out flat and then, taking care to keep you dainty fingertips tucked back away from the knifeblade, make the thinner cuts.

Then remove the bitter white pith from the remaining fruit and discard. Roughly cut up the orange flesh.

Above, you can see the prepped ingredients: ginger, basil, red sweet bell pepper, orange flesh and orange peel. In the little mortar, I put the saffron threads and just about a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar and then with the rounded handle of a wooden spoon grind it to a finer powder so it distributes evenly throughout the jam.

So then chop the tomatos ( I’m assuming you know what chopped tomatos look like), measure out the sugar, squeeze the fresh lemon juice and get your pectin ready to go. I always take one packet of the Certo Liquid Pectin and pour it into a jam jar, so when I need a bit extra, like this recipe, I have it handy.

Put sugar, tomatoes and all the ingredients (EXCEPT the Liquid Pectin) into your jam pot with a heavy bottom. Stir it up and let it set for about 10 minutes before putting it on the stove. Make sure it well mixed up and no sugar is hiding under where it will burn.

Now it’s time to bring it to a full rolling boil over medium high to high heat. Don’t force this as it can burn. Work it up to the full rolling boil, stirring frequently. As I’ve said before, now isn’t the time to talk on the phone or feed the kids. Stay focused.

When you get to the rolling boil that stirring won’t ‘knock down’, add your liquid pectin. Have those packets open and ready to squeeze out into the pot, and have a tablespoon measure ready to add the extra.

After a quick stir, you’ll notice that the jam looses all the boil, so you have to bring it back up to a full rolling boil again. With your watch ( with a sweep second hand ) or kitchen timer handy, start a one minute timer set as soon as you have that good steady foaming boil.

At one minute, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Reset your timer to five minutes. Get your jars and tongs ready, and some paper towels to wipe jar rims dampened as in my other post ( see those photos).

Fill your jars with the canning funnel and ladle. Make sure to keep about a 1/4 inch ‘head space’ before setting the lids. Only twist the rings until you feel the first light resistance. Don’t over or under tighten as you won’t get a good seal.

This jam is better as it sets around a week or so. It’s great on roast chicken sandwiches instead of mayonnaise, works swell as a glaze on fish, pork or chicken, provides a wonderful base for a homemade tomato vinegarette salad dressing or just with your breakfast bagel or toast.

Everybody will love this as a Christmas gift.

maven