Marrow Ginger jam

Oh yummy yums. Had to share this recipe with you although there is room for improvement in my making of it. It's taken from 'What will I do with all those courgettes?' by Elaine Borish. ISBN 0952488159

This is my first year of the courgette experience and already I have been caught out by a couple of specimens which seem to have gone at a mighty gallop of growth. So, a quick look through this book and I found the jam recipe.

You need:
4lbs (2kg) peeled, seeded, then cubed, marrow.
3lbs (1 1/2 kg) Preserving sugar
1oz (30g) root ginger. Crushed. I did this by first peeling the ginger, then putting it into a plastic bag before bashing it with Hub's hammer. And perhaps wiser to put a cloth in between the hammer and the bag. I didn't and I got a squelch as a result when the bag burst open. But ginger is easy to scoop back together, unless you are bashing the bag with a hammer on the ground outside. Then you will have to be careful of gathering up any other detritus with your squashed ginger. The hammer cleaned up quite easily though.
3 large lemons, thinly peeled rind and juice. I couldn't peel my lemons, so I used a gadget which gives the peel a grated texture.
You will also need: A thick bottomed saucepan, a large spoon, and endless patience. This is quite a long winded jamming experience. Plus you will need a muslin bag to put the ginger in, and the lemon peel. I didn't have a muslin bag so I cut a circle out of an old piece of voile, put the ginger in the centre of it, then brought all the edges together, fixing them firmly into place with an elastic band. The recipe says put the lemon peel in as well, but I thought I would save the lemon gratings and pop them in to add extra texture later on.

1) Put marrow pieces in bowl with one third of the sugar, and leave to stand overnight. Haven't the faintest idea why one should do this, but did as instructed.

2) Into saucepan goes everything. Bring to the boil slowly, making sure the sugar is dissolved.
3) Continue to boil steadily until marrow looks transparent. Mine never did.
4) Taste after 15 minutes to adjust flavour, removing muslin bag if necessary.
5) Cook until setting point is reached.

Well, I boiled and boiled away for ages, testing frequently but the mixture didn't seem to want to oblige and turn itself into jam.

I originally thought that this was a large pot of jam to be making, but it takes so long to set that it is best to start off with a large quantity of mix because a lot of that is going to evaporate away.

I kept testing the mix, leaving the ginger in for most of the cooking time because it didn't seem to be too invasive to the taste.

I popped in the lemon gratings towards the end, when the ladle I was using to occasionally stir the mix starting dragging as I moved it round the saucepan signalling that things were starting to thicken. I'm not sure whether you should stir boiling jam, but I am cooking on a caravan stove, and can only heat up one side of my saucepan leaving the other side to be off the boil.

Finally, after ages and ages, I decided that it was as set as it was ever likely to be. Denise over at Much Marlarkey Manor had already warned me that her marrow jam took a while to set, and that it was of a consistency which dribbled off her toast. This type of jam has to be eaten with care, since the drip factor is high enough to leave runnels down the chin and from thence onto the bosoms if one has them. Or one's lap, or over one's hand and up one's sleeve, or onto the table, or floor, or dog. This is a messy type of jam, but no less enjoyable.

Anyway, I decanted about four and a half pots, the marrow sitting in suspension quite happily making me believe that the jam would stiffen as it cooled. It didn't.

So onto the Internet to see why this was. No help anywhere, apart from the advice that it would take upwards of two hours at simmer to set. Someone on a forum had fetched up with the same lose jam, and had reboiled it after which it had set. An investigation into my old cookbook gave me the info that the end of season marrow is best for jamming.

So: I jammed a marrow when it was too young. I didn't simmer the jam for long enough, but boiled it instead which risked giving a singed taste to the jam as the sugar got fed up and burnt. And I didn't feel like reboiling it, because the caravan is a very hot place to be making jam in especially if the jam is going to take hours to reach set. The heat from the stove added to the heat from the sun, makes the caravan a place which is needed to be evacuated from.

But: this jammy syrup, which is what I ended up with, is gorgeous. I keep having a swig of it as I pass by, and as I said in my blog today, entitled 'We had a bit of a blowing' (17 July 2009) over on 'Snippets from our smallholding', I am in danger of becoming a marrow and ginger jam junkie. I am going to have to put the pots away in the cupboard, out of sight, otherwise I will keep on dipping my fingers into it to sample the delightful taste.

Lessons I have learnt: That I love ginger.
That lemon bits in jam are superb.
That this is a recipe which has potential.
That one can always clean the kitchen, do a bit of crocheting, file one's nails, and wash the kitchen ceiling while waiting for the jam to reach setting point.
That one can always use this syrupy jam for putting over things, like puddings and yoghurts, or in my case, as a comfort food!

And here's a spare pot of jam for you!

25.07.09. I have been using this jam on the top of cakes, and in rice puddings. The pieces of marrow have now turned gingery in taste, and the stickiness on top of cakes gives an unusual flavour. Drizzle the jam on before the cake goes into the oven, and / or drizzle it once out of the oven.