TIME FOR TOMATO MARMALADE

As the sun angle dips so low that you frequently need to turn the sun visor down even at mid- day, many cooks’ thoughts turn to canning fruits, jams and marmalades. I enjoy both the process and the flavor of home-canned products so much that I do it year round whether the sun angle is low or not. However, the fall season signals to preparation of one of my favorite foods, tomatoes.

I don’t bother canning sauces and whole tomatoes—I feel that I can utilize my canning time better with preparing jams and marmalades. Most of this is for home use but many jars are given away to my favorite people. And when we are dinner guests at friends, I don’t bother offering the customary bottle of wine but a jar of home-canned something. After all, anyone can buy wine (a bottle of which most likely will be gone and forgotten before the dinner is over) but most hosts and hostesses are likely to enjoy a freshly opened good jam over many breakfasts.

I buy my tomatoes at the farmers’ market where they are totally ripe and inexpensive this time of the year. There is no reason to buy the more costly heirloom tomatoes—they don’t produce a better marmalade.

Commercial jams and marmalades are not particularly good, even expensive imported ones, and mostly much oversweetened. I keep mine just barely sweet. I am able to do this, since I don’t use pectin to thicken—even the low-sugar pectin jams are too sweet for my taste.

Besides, when using pectin, the canning process is so quick that there is no time for the cooking to develop and bring out full flavor. Freezer jams are even worse, they are virtually instant and the flavor of raw fruits definitely lacks the improved cooked flavor.

My canning process uses the old-fashioned unhurried cooking, evaporating the moisture (after adding sugar and flavorings) until the thickness of the syrup is just right. Then I simply spoon this syrup into sterilized jars, seal and label.

Using a wide-bottomed pan the process can be fairly quick. In such pan the rate of evaporation is fast. A five-pound batch of tomatoes, for example, is cooked down in about 30 or 40 minutes.

I go a step further for an additional flavor. I cook the mixture down until the color turns slightly darker, signaling the beginning of the caramelization process, a new, very nice flavor in the jam or marmalade, even though I do sacrifice the beautiful red-rose color. At this point the mixture would be much too thick to preserve (the marmalade would be like thick axle grease). Now it is time to add a little more water to thin the mixture, cook it another few minutes and spoon it into the jars.

Do not forget the label! My daughter showed me a collection of jars received from friends and clients and nearly half of them had no labels. She had no idea where they came from and what they contained. So add a label with name, date, and your name.

Many recipes for tomato marmalade call for some oranges, lemons and spices. I tried these, too, but found that simply tomatoes without any other addition except sugar and a little salt is the best.

For 5 pounds of tomatoes I use 5½ cups sugar and half teaspoon salt. This yields about 5½ cups of marmalade. I blanch the tomatoes first for 90 seconds to loosen the thick skin, cool them slightly then slip off the skins. I cut them up into large pieces and quickly process these in the food processor to leave coarsely chopped tomatoes. These go into the canning pot with the sugar and salt. The process takes 10 or 15 minutes.

Though canning instructions ask you to use a boiling water canner to totally sterilize the jars, I skip this step. Tomato marmalade is high in acid and sugar and totally safe without this extra time consuming step. (To feel totally safe, you don’t need to follow my example.)

Tomato marmalade is excellent on toasts but some people use it over cream cheese, goat cheese or any good soft cheese as a first course or hors d'oeuvres.