Homemade tomato jam

How to make tomato jam . I present you a recipe whose main ingredient is tomato and that serves as an alternative to gazpacho or salmorejo , so consumed during its harvest season.

Making homemade jams is a fantastic option to eat healthy since they do not have any additives, and it is ideal if we have home tomatoes since their flavor is much more intense.

Tomatoes must be ripe and in excellent condition, well peeled and peeled. With this recipe we can preserve them for a longer time and savor them in a quite original way, it is almost a delicatessen, an authentic homemade tomato jam .

It is a very easy recipe to prepare, like the rest of the jams, but you will be pleasantly surprised by the delicate flavor that the final mixture acquires. I recommend that you taste it on a slice of good bread, it is delicious accompanied by cheese or Serrano ham.

It can be seasoned with some aromatic herb such as basil. I tell you that I have put it at a dinner with friends, some not very tomato lovers, and they loved it. I hope you enjoy it.

Tomato preparation for jam

1. We have to peel and peel the tomatoes. To get the tomato well peeled, the ideal is to cut the skin and blanch it for a couple of minutes. Thus it practically leaves alone and we will not find remains. Once peeled we cut them into quarters and with the help of a knife remove the gelatinous part where the seeds are wrapped.
2. Once this is done, we obtain approximately half of what we initially weighed. In this case we had 1Kg of tomatoes and we have obtained 500 g. without skin or seeds.
3. We cut it into not too large pieces, but without crushing it, leaving the pieces the size we want to find in the jam.
4. Place in a bowl and add half its weight in sugar, mixing 50% white sugar and brown sugar. We let it rest for 1 hour.
5. We cut the lemon, squeeze it and separate 50 ml. that we will add to the mix. We reserve.

Preparation of tomato jam

1. We remove to mix the ingredients well, place in a pot and light the fire. We keep it on low heat for 10 minutes. Consumed that time we add the lemon juice and let it boil for 5 minutes.
2. Finally we lower the heat and leave it for about 40 minutes more, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking.
3. The jam is ready when there is little liquid, we do not let it dry completely since when cooling it thickens a little and could be too hard.
4. We pour the jam very hot in glass jars that are well washed in the dishwasher or if we prefer, previously boiled, we tighten the lid well and turn the jars upside down to achieve the vacuum. Both the containers and the lids must be perfectly dry at the time of packaging. We do not recommend too large pots (ideally between 250 and 500 ml) since once they are open, when they come into contact with air, their contents can spoil if they are not consumed within a certain time.
5. We leave them like this for one night before placing the pot in its normal position and storing.
6. When they have cooled we keep them in the fridge. The approximate duration is 2-3 months.

I recommend you visit how to make canned tuna so you can see the process.

Preserving the jam

• With the lids and cans well cleaned and sterilized. We fill them in hot, cover them and turn them over. We leave them face down for several hours.
• In this way, with the internal heat and the weight of the jam, a vacuum will be created to achieve conservation. With this method they will last you several months in good condition.
• Another more durable method is to put the jars into a large pot of boiling water. We keep them in the “bain marie” for 25-30 minutes, and then let them cool down in the water.
• A good trick is to place a rag at the base of the pot so that they sit on the bottom. This way we avoid that the boats do not move during the process. You can keep them for a year and even more.
• Either way, it is good to put a label / sticker on them indicating the type of jam and the date of production. To avoid later consuming them well past the date.
• In summary: If we want the jam to last us many months, we must carry out the sterilization process; first of the empty cans and then a second sterilization with the canned food already prepared. But with the steps indicated in the preparation it will be enough to ensure a good conservation.