Tomato-Apple Jam with Cloves
Tomato in a jam only sounds odd until you remember tomatoes are botanically a fruit — ripe ones are sweet and juicy, and paired with apples they cook down into a surprisingly harmonious preserve. Jams like this were an autumn habit in home kitchens, born of needing to use up a heavy harvest of both crops at once.
Why the lemon and cloves matter
The lemon does double duty: it adds tartness and natural pectin, which helps a mixture with no added gelling agent thicken on its own. The cloves, crushed to a powder, cut through any vegetal note from the tomatoes and lend a warm, almost Christmassy aroma. Reach for firm, sweet-tart apples so they hold their shape instead of collapsing into sauce.
This scorches easily once the sugar goes in, so stir often and keep the heat moderate. To test doneness, drop a little onto a cold saucer (chill it in the freezer first) — set jam won’t run when you tilt it, which usually means around 105°C / 220°F. Serve with tea, pancakes, or spooned into puff pastry.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Wash the tomatoes and cut them into wedges.
Peel the lemon and remove the seeds.
Cut the apples into wedges, removing the cores.
Pass the tomatoes and lemon through a meat grinder.
Set the resulting mixture over low heat, then add the apples and the cloves ground to a powder.
Cook for 15 minutes.
Add the sugar and cook until done, until the jam thickens.
Pour it hot into jars and seal.
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