Figgy Jam

There are so many foods to taste and cook before summer is over!  With figs being abundant at the moment, there’s no better time than right now to prepare fig jam!

To stock up on a taste of summer I went on a little expedition to gather black figs, and then set to work, with a knife and the camera!! 🙂

This year, the summer in Saint-Chinian has been very hot and dry, and as a result the figs are even sweeter than they usually are!!  For my jams, I always use less sugar than the received wisdom of 1 part sugar to 1 part fruit suggests.  I never use more than 1 part sugar to 2 parts fruit, but I use the kind of sugar which contains pectin.  That way the jam always produces a nice set, and the jam only needs to be boiled for three minutes.  The end result is bags of fruit flavour and none of the overpowering sweetness, which some jams have.

Another important ingredient for my jams is lemon juice.  In this case I had to use lime lime juice – I had run out of lemons and it was Sunday afternoon, with all the stores closed!!  How could I possibly have  forgotten the lemons … 🙂

The figs only needed a brief rinse to remove any dust, and once they had drained I cut them into quarters.  Here’s a purely gratuitous picture of half a fig:

Once the figs had all been cut up I added the sugar and tossed them so that they were all coated.

The sugar draws out all the juice, which will cook to a lovely jelly!  After a few hours (or overnight), the figs were glistening lusciously, just like this:

The contents of the bowl were all scraped carefully into a large pan, and the lemon (or lime) juice was added.

On to the cooker on medium high heat, stirring regularly.  Once it reached boiling point it only took three minutes.

Luckily, fig jam does not froth like strawberry jam – there’s no risk of its bubbling right out of the pan!  Before I knew it the time was up – the jam was done and ready for potting up:

Every last bit was scraped from the pot to fill five jam jars.

Luckily there was a little left on the spoon for me to lick off 🙂

Those five jars will be hoarded away for a taste of summer, for when the days grow shorter and the weather colder, and when the supply of locally grown fruit has been reduced to apples and pears.  I just know that those jams will not be around when spring starts next year!!

How do you enjoy your fig jam – on toast, with yoghurt, or . . . ??