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Easy marrow and ginger jam recipe

Posted by on Tuesday 31 August 2010 in cooking, preserving, recipes | 10 comments

After writing up the wild plum jam recipe the last week, I realised that I hadn’t written about the super easy marrow and ginger jam I made a few weeks ago.

We’ve had a lot of marrows this year – more by accident than design — too many courgette plants to keep up with. I used the early ones to make my marrow cake and misc cheesy marrow bake, and I gave some of them away – but we’ve still got maybe half a dozen to use up – so I’m jamming and chutneying like there is no tomorrow.

This jam recipe is very sweet but very easy. If you’re not a fan of sweet stuff, you might prefer to use less sugar and certainly not add the crystallised ginger.


Marrow and ginger jam recipe


Ingredients:

1kg of peeled & deseeded marrow
100g of peeled root ginger
100ml of lemon juice (2 lemons)
1tsp of cinnamon
1kg of jam sugar (sugar with added pectin) or granulated sugar & some pectin concentrate
A handful of crystallised ginger, fine chopped (optional)

Method:

0. Prepare the jars by sterilising them – wash them in hot soapy water then rinse them with very hot clean water before putting them in the oven for 15-20 mins at 160C/gas mark 3.

1. Juice the 2 lemons into a small bowl.

2. Coarsely grate the 1kg of marrow and 100g of ginger into a bowl. If you’re anything like me, you’ll grate your knuckles several times during this process which is why you should juice the lemons first. Ow-ee.

3. Put the grated marrow & ginger into a large, heavy bottomed pan. Add the lemon juice and the 1tsp of cinnamon. Heat gently for about five minutes or so, stirring so it doesn’t stick. After five minutes, the marrow should be wilting slightly and losing liquid.

4. Add the 1kg of jam sugar to the pan and turn up the heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved then let the goop boil hard until it reaches setting point (check with the wrinkle test or similar). Start checking how set it is from about 10 minutes – it shouldn’t be any longer than 20mins max.

While it’s boiling, carefully scoop away any scum – trying hard not to take too much liquid with you, lest you waste some of the precious delicious sticky goodness.

5. When it’s just about ready, add the optional fine chopped handful of crystallised ginger – this adds extra sweetness & ginger-fieriness so might be too much for some people but others will love it ;) It doesn’t need to be cooked, just stirred throughout.

6. Once it’s reached setting point, carefully pour into the still warm sterilised jars. It’s a bit of a lumpy rather than smooth jam so a jam funnel (or improvised jam funnel such as the top of a big juice/pop bottle) is very useful to stop it going everywhere. Seal the jars once you’re done et voila!

Have you made this? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Other posts you might like:

Using up the glut: Marrow cake recipe John’s Grandma’s marrow flower fritters recipe Wild plum/cherry plum jam recipe Fixing runny/solid jam and reusing marrow & squash leaves

10 Comments

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  1. Ron
    12 February, 2016 at 4:45 am

    Much too sweet. first try. Very solid setting. so I added more marrow, to double the amount, added extra cinnamon and ginger. Diced some of the added marrow. Reboiled, and it turned quite well. Wondering if there was a mistake in the Qty of Marrow, should be double, and then some..

    Not American here, so if this is true recipe , much too sweet for us.. Quite nice after adjustments .. Ron..

    Reply
  2. Brenda A
    31 March, 2016 at 4:49 pm

    What are your calling marrow?? Marrow is the solf stuff inside of bones. You CAN’T peel & chop bones to eat. So what are you calling marrow???

    Reply
  3. Claire
    29 July, 2016 at 5:08 pm

    Approximately how many 1lb jars will this make please? Can’t wait to try it!!

    Reply
  4. Claire
    29 July, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    Approximately how many 1lb jars will this fill please?

    Reply
  5. Evelyn
    30 July, 2016 at 10:41 pm

    I used this recipe last year when I had far too many marrow on my allotment.
    I did not change the recipe in any way and the end result was excellent.
    I did add some ginger in syrup which I drained and chopped , as it was left over from another recipe.

    This is far easier than my grandmothers recipe which chopped the marrow , added the sugar and drained it through a muslin to work out the liquid!

    Hampshire UK.

    Reply
  6. Ali
    8 August, 2016 at 10:39 pm

    Enjoyed making this but used half the sugar & added juice & zest of a lime. Seems quite good but took longer to get to setting point, (about 30 minutes.) Just love ginger so thankyou!

    Reply
  7. John Wilkes
    19 September, 2016 at 3:20 pm

    Tried this one Louisa but could not get it to set sadly ,used granulated sugar and 100 grams of pectin but to no avail, I was adamant not to waste it so i adapted it with your marrow cake recipe and lo and behold out pops a a gorgeous cake, many thanks from a sheer amateaur

    Reply
  8. Libby Bowyer
    6 October, 2016 at 11:18 am

    Have made this jam once before initially for a friend but it made more than I thought so had some for myself. I had never tried or even heard of marrow jam. (I’ve had marrow chutney but never marrow jam) I was pleasantly surprised not only by how easy it was to make but how tasty it is.

    Reply
  9. Dorothy Walker
    10 October, 2016 at 7:00 pm

    Yummy- my older clients love this- brings back happy memories for them and me. I’m in the U.K.

    Reply

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