Fig Preserve with Port
My Dad asked if I was adding sherry to my fig jam. I hadn’t thought of it, but then again, I poached the pears that way last year and believe it would be delicious. I adopted this Fig Preserve from Hunter-Angler-Gardner-Cook that had been made with ouzo. I had port on hand, incase you’re wondering why I used neither suggestion.
The authors notes are particularly interesting, although I did choose to leave out the citric acid. I didn’t have fresh, so I started with dry figs that were soaked over night in apple-pectin water:
I add a little salt and bay leaves to this recipe to make it a little more complex. It is still sweet enough for a breakfast spread, but the herbal note from the bay lets this jam come into the dinner menu, too. The citric acid adds a little zing to the jam, and it helps preserve it, too. You can find it online or through beer brewing shops. Makes 3 pints. It should last at least a year.
This makes a loose jam. The skins of the figs tend to stay the same size no matter how long you cook them, so be mindful when you are chopping — you don’t want big hunks of fig skin in the jam when you’re trying to spread it on toast, do you?
- 4 pounds figs
- Zest and juice of two lemons, washed in warm-soapy water to remove any wax
- 1 tsp. citric acid (optional – I omitted)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 4 cups sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup port or sherry
- Zest and juice the lemons and set aside. Chop the figs roughly into small pieces. Add the bay leaves, salt, sugar, citric acid, lemon juice and zest, plus half a cup of port to the figs and mix well. Let stand at room temperature, covered, for one to two hours (I started this in the morning before I had breakfast and then prepared my jars).
- Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and let this cook down for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring often.
- When the jam is done, turn off the heat, wait for it to stop simmering and then stir in the rest of the port. Remove the bay leaves.
- Pour the fig jam into sterilized pint jars and seal. Post process in boiling water for 10 minutes (as per Benardin’s fig jam recipe).
A few additional points about cooking with figs from About.com:
- Figs produce protein-digesting enzymes that break down muscle and connective tissue in meat, making them an excellent tenderizer as well as flavor-enhancer.
- Dried figs can be used interchangably with prunes, dried apricots, and dates in most recipes.
- When chopping dried figs by hand with knife or scissors, dip cutting implement into warm water occasionally to prevent sticking.
- When chopping in a food processor, add some of the sugar called for in the recipe to prevent fruit from sticking.
For future reference, I bought 1lb of figs and I had enough to count out 36 figs (approx equivalent to 4 lb fresh figs that are required for most long boil recipes) and the remaining 500g of dried figs was for the Benardin pectin-jam. These are the conversions I used as a guide:
1 pound fresh figs = 9 medium or 12 small = 2-2/3 cups chopped
1 pound dried figs = 44 whole figs = 3 cups chopped
