Once I finally bought a pot large enough to boil more than seven quarts of water at a time, I wanted to jump into canning. The problem was that in our teeny, tiny house, there’s not a lot of room to store the stuff we already have, let alone the stuff that I want to can. I convinced The Mistah to clean off a shelf in the basement for the canning supplies to live on. But I still don’t have a great place to store the jars that are filled and sealed. I see a trip to IKEA in my future to add another shelf to our IVAR system for the exclusive use of jams, pickles, and chutneys.
Fortunately, I made no promise to The Mistah that canning would ever save us any money. But when he asks why I need to go out and buy a new shelf, especially since we got rid of a bunch of them just a few years ago, I’m going to hand him a jar of jam without saying a word. The jam speaks for itself folks.
Gingered Rhubarb Jam with Honey
Adapted from The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving
BAH Note: This book has been my canning salvation. The recipes are all geared towards small batch production which suits my style perfectly. I thought the Gingered Rhubarb came out tasting more strongly of honey with a gingered undertone. It was a great addition to my steel cut oats in the morning but could also be used with pork, chicken, or biscuits. I use a 5.5 quart dutch oven to make my jams and wouldn’t recommend using a pot any smaller than that. I was able to get seven 4-ounce jars out of this recipe which is as close to the 3 1/4 cup yield stated in the book as I could hope to get.
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb, chopped
- 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup honey
- 1 1/2 tablespoons crystallized ginger, finely diced
Place the rhubarb, apple, water, and lemon zest into a large stainless steel pot or enamel dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the fruit is tender.
Add the sugar, honey, ginger, and lemon juice. Raise the heat and boil uncovered, stirring frequently, until the mixture gels, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Ladle the jam into heated jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space, and process for 10 minutes. Let the jars cool for 24 hours before checking the seal and storing the jars. Any jars that have not sealed should be refrigerated or immediately reprocessed using new lids.
Bon Appetit Hon 
Sounds tasty! And I am as ever super impressed with your canning activities. I remain scared of the whole process but you are giving me courage. Maybe someday!
Jennifer, I hope you’ll jump on the canning bandwagon. All the cook kids are doing it ; )
Looks great- I’ve recently jumped onto the canning bandwagon and definitely go for the small batches myself 🙂
Winnie, I’ve been doing so much canning recently that even the small batches are piling up around here. I’m bringing a bunch to Big Summer Potluck to swap. Do you have a book or website that you go to for the small batch recipes?
This post takes me rt back.to when I received my jar of this yummy deliciousness. It’s perfect slathered on warm homemade biscuits btw. Mmmmmmmm.
Thanks for that ringing endorsement of Gingered Rhubarb Jam Lan.
Hip Hip Huzzah for canning.
I’m pretty sad I basically missed the rhubarb season because of all of those wedding cakes. Hopefully I’ll catch a bit in the fall.
Beth, I was at Wegman’s on Sunday and they still had rhubarb. And in a pinch, The Fresh Market usually has it in the freezer case.
Our house has been completely taken over by jars and jams.
Mmmmmmmmmmm…. Im enjoying the tasty jammy delights you sent very much. Now, as for canning, Ive never tried it, I love the jar thing, that way you can see your tasty delights sitting proudly. 🙂
Anna, the beauty of canning is that you can share all sorts of things with folks far and wide. Next on my list is pickles.
Can I just say, being a canning queen is on my “bucket list”. (Just added!) I have canned once, but would love to somehow add it into my life routine, like the yearly-stock-for-winter routine. But, this summer, I’m just trying to keep a step ahead of my kids. I’m still young yet, right? Plenty of time to come. But, like I offered before, I will willing volunteer my taste test services!
~Kristin
Kristin, if you would have told me even just a few years ago that I would embrace canning, I’d have laughed. And yet I am the crazy canning lady….in a good way.
Oh, I just love small batch canning… Always seems so much more manageable to me. Love this jam… The flavors just sound divine!
Jen, I think if I had the room to store pints and quarts the larger batches wouldn’t be as problematic for me. But also, the small jars are just so much easier to work with, share, and enjoy.
I’ve canned for many years and always looking recipes with honey. Thank you for sharing. I shy away from jams because of the volume of sugar in most recipes. I switched the proportions of sugar and honey in yours along with adding more rhubarb, and all seems to have come out well. Thank you for the inspiration, along with helping me use more of the 18 rhubarb plants I’ve found myself with!
I love hearing success stories. Glad you were able to find a use for all that rhubarb. I completely missed it this year.