Today we made Rhubarb and Grapefruit jam. It’s not a combination we’ve come across before but it turns out it’s quite nice and at least had the descency to set after the first boiling!

The Recipe

Ingredients

• 910g of clean chopped rhubarb
• 910g sugar
• 1 Grapefruit

Method

• Remove grapefruit zest
• Juice grapefruit (push through a fine sieve or similar)
• Add all ingredients (rhubarb, sugar, zest, juice) to a bowl and leave for 48 hours
• After 48 hours, put in a pan and heat gently until all the sugar is dissolved
• Boil to a set

Outcome

I had trouble getting this to pass the setting test (saucer in the fridge, expect jam to wrinkle when you push it after a minute or so). Eventually, in a moment of inattention it stuck to the pan when I was boiling it. I rescued it just in time and it did actually set just.

I think that with care this would have worked just fine and one discovery I made was that my strongest ring for cooking on (gas) is too wide for the pan I was using. I get a better boil from a smaller ring that hits the middle of the pan better. It stuck when I moved it from the larger ring to the smaller and set it going at full power.

The jam has a mild grapefruit taste to it (not nearly as strong as the original smell) and also a mild caramel taste (from the almost-burn!). It’s quite pleasant and I’ll certainly make it again with a little more care.

This recipe produced two small kilner jars and a standard jam jar worth of jam.

Verdict

I think this would have been an entirely successful recipe (including a reasonable set) if I hadn’t let it stick a little. Well worth trying again.