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Pineapple Lemon Jam

This recipe is the first batch of jam that I felt was sufficiently original and a well defined enough recipe to share. It’s a jam not a marmalade, so there isn’t peel in it, leading to a clearer appearance, texture, and flavor.

Ingredients

1.5 cups lemon flesh and juice (about 9 lemons for me)

3.5 cups pureed pineapple (1 regular size pineapple was plenty)

5 cups sugar total

Lemon Prep

Start by cutting the top and bottom off the lemon, then slicing off the side peel and pith.  Slice in between the membranes of the naked fruit so you get segments without membrane. You can see the results pictured.  I usually had some fruit stuck to the membranes to I just squeezed the juice out over a strainer and added it to the fruit segments.  Macerate with 1 cup of the sugar while you’re doing the rest of the prep.

Pectin Prep

Set aside a loose generous cup of membranes and one or two sections of peel and pith.  Simmer in 2 cups of water for about 45 minutes.  For me this reduced down to a little more than 1 cup of strained liquid.

Pineapple Prep

Cut the pineapple (you’re on your own here, just don’t leave in those spike little brown things).  Chop into chunks and puree in a food processor to yield about 3.5 cups, it’s ok if there are still some jam appropriate size chunks.  Mix in 1 cup of the sugar and let macerate because you’re probably still waiting for the simmering pectin.

Jam it

Combine the fruits, strained pectin liquid, and remaining 3 cups sugar.  Cook the jam until it’s set (use the spoon or plate wrinkle test if you like, for me I go to about 224F). Skim foam as it cooks.

Can it

There’s a lot of lemon in this, so it’s probably going to be safely acidic, but I always just check with a pH strip for good measure. I processed for 10 minutes in boiling water.

Yield

Almost 3 pints total.