Since I don't have my canning equipment in Japan, I haven't been dabbling in this fun activity. Since I never make big batches, it doesn't really matter if I fail. (I once made sweet cantaloupe soup because my jam didn't gel.) Recently, we have been gifted several fuyu persimmons, so many in fact that they were ripening faster than we could eat them. Instead of letting them go bad, I found a recipe for persimmon jam on the internet.
I'm usually wary of recipes from new (to me) websites, but I figured it was worth a try.
I gathered 850 grams of persimmons (fuyu, not hachiya), 500 grams of sugar, 200 ml of lemon juice, plus the zest of one lemon.
The persimmons were very ripe (which I think they need to be for this recipe). I used the back of the knife to scrape all the good flesh from the skins and then pulled the seeds out. As I was doing this, my son, eager to help, zested and juiced the lemons.
I tossed everything in the pot (first the persimmons and sugar, cooking for 5 minutes, then the lemon juice and zest) and boiled it for 45 minutes.
I prepped a couple jars by pouring boiling water in them and soaking the lids in boiling water as well. Once the jam didn't run on a cold dish, I transferred the jam to three jars and let them sit upside down for a while.
All in all, the jam took less than an hour to make.
I tasted the jam several times as I was making sure it was fully cooked. Although it had good persimmon flavor, it also tasted a lot of lemons. I think I will play with this recipe a bit to reduce the sugar and increase the persimmon flavor.
Since the taste of persimmons always remind me of autumn in Japan, it will be a nice treat to play with and perfect to my liking.
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The recipe was found at masalaherb.com.
Yum. Persimmons here are so expensive. In summer, we've made tomato-basil jam (great in shakshura) and strawberry lemon poppyseed. Once in awhile, I make white peach, which usually gets used as ice cream topping.
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