Snowday pineapple jam

 

Yes it is the middle of February and even though our winter to date has been mild it still FEELS like the middle of February. If you live in a colder climate country, you know exactly what I mean. You are growing tired of waking up to the dark, having it be dark by 4pm, looking out your window at your yellow lawn and trees without leaves. Even on sunny days the light has a different quality in February than it does in July. The edges are sharper and everything is crisp in appearance, which only seems to amplify the lack of colour and life outside. You never get those soft, fuzzy days that happen only in the summer.

So this morning when I woke up to see everything covered in a layer of bright white snow, I decided what better day to make something tropical, like Pineapple Jam. Pineapples from Costa Rica are lining the shelves of my local grocery store, so after checking to make sure that the pineapples are ripe I chose a couple juicy candidates and made my way home  .

I cut each pineapple up into very small pieces and put into separate wide bottom non reactive pots. Added 6 cups of sugar and let them soak for an hour, stirring once or twice. You will notice this brings the juices out in the pineapple and help dissolve the sugar.

After an hour, I transferred the pots to the stove. I wanted to make a double batch but chose to do it in separate pots, staggering the start time by about 15 minutes so that when I got to the part where constant stirring was required I could concentrate on one batch. The directions below are for one batch.

Turning the heat to medium and adding 2 tbsp of lemon, I stirred the mixture until the sugar had completely dissolved and then I added a small dollop of butter. I wasn't specific with the amount, but it was about a tsp.

Turning the heat to med high, I brought the pineapples to a gentle boil and then reduced the heat, covered the pot and let them simmer for 10 minutes. By now you will notice that the pineapple chunks have begun to reduce in size and the mixture has gotten quite liquidy.

Turning the heat once again to med high I brought the pineapples to a rolling boil stirring constantly. Added 3oz of liquid pectin and stirred again constantly until the mixture returned to a rolling boil and let it boil for 60 seconds and then turned off the heat.

Leaving the pineapples to cool for several minutes so your fruit doesn't float and then ladled into sterilized jars and put in water bath for 10 minutes.

Summer in a jar even in February.