Tomato Jam (aka “Heinz on Crack”)

Normally I change a recipe in some way to adapt it to my needs. This one I kept exactly as is. It’s from Food in Jars, the websit I trust the most for canning. This woman is a canning guru, and her website offers tons of recipes, tips, and canning wisdom.

I call this “Heinz on Crack” both for marketability and for calling it what it is. It’s a little spicy, but also savoury, but mostly sweet and a little tangy – the perfect balance. Use it as regular jam or as a sweet and spicy ketchup. Or with charcuterie, or with cheese, or with grilled meat of any kind, or with crackers, or with a spoon…

You ned 5 lbs of tomatoes for it, but you don’t need to peel and seed them, so it’s not too much work. I remember buying 2 lbs of tomatoes once at a farmers market in Manhattan. It cost $20. I thought tomatoes would eternally be out of my budget, but with this year’s bumper crop (which means there’s a lot) of tomatoes, I was gifted enough from a friend to add to the $6 worth I bought at the market. The $6 even gave me $7 lbs all by itself!. Take that, Manhattan. You actually want the seeds and skins in there for texture. Otherwise it’s too smooth and syrupy. So I chopped and chopped (“finely”) and rigged up two skillets (I still don’t own a large pot…) to cook down the tomatoes with the sugar lime juice, cinnamon, freshly ground cloves, salt, ginger, and red chili flakes. It was easy as…I was going to say pie, but pie can be tricky. It was easy as jam. If you think jam is easy, then this will be easy. If you think jam is hard, well it can be. But this is relatively simple jam.

Enjoy!