WEEK 11: YOUR BEST PRESERVES

Sweet and Savory Tomato Jam

Photography by Sarah Shatz

    BY JENNIFER PERILLO | MAKES 1½ PINTS

A&M: We’re huge fans of tomato preserves, but we’d never made one quite like this. Jennifer Perillo’s recipe calls for vinegar, cumin, coriander, onion, and salt, which we expected to translate into a chutneylike preserve. But there’s enough sugar in this jam to keep it balanced—deliciously—between sweet and savory. It made us realize that tomatoes really need an acid like vinegar to underline their sweetness; the vinegar also adds a crucial sense of richness to the jam. Jennifer noted that it has “just enough sweetness to toe the line between a condiment for roasted and grilled meats and a treat to slather on toasted baguette.” The only issue with this recipe is that it makes just 3 half pints; we’d like to share it and yet we find it difficult to part with any of them.

    3½ pounds tomatoes, coarsely chopped

    1 small onion, chopped

    ½ cup lightly packed brown sugar

    1½ cups sugar

    1 teaspoon salt

    ½ teaspoon ground coriander

    ¼ teaspoon ground cumin

    ¼ cup cider vinegar

    Juice of 1 lemon

    Put all the ingredients in a 2-quart pot. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until thickened and jamlike in consistency, stirring occasionally, about 3 hours. Transfer to sterilized glass jars and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or process in a hot-water canning bath for 15 minutes for long-term storage.

Photography by Sarah Shatz

    ABOUT THE COOK

    Jennifer Perillo is a recipe developer and food editor from Brooklyn, New York. She writes a food blog called In Jennie’s Kitchen (www.injennieskitchen.com).

        Something she’d like a chance to eat: “There’s a 100-year-old bottle of balsamic vinegar that costs $750 at a local Italian shop.”

    WHAT THE COMMUNITY SAID

    Melissav: “I made this last week and it was delicious. Even my husband (a recovering tomato hater) admitted it was yummy. We plan on serving some at our next wine tasting on top of goat-cheese-slathered crostini.”