Apricot Jam Recipe
Here’s my family recipe for apricot jam, handed down through generations. One generation, really — my mom got it from a pamphlet put out by some local womens’ group, after we moved to an old ramshackle house in the middle of a huge but disused apricot orchard. The trees were old, but a lot of them still produced fruit, and it was no trouble to walk around and collect bucketsful. So we needed some way to make use of all that fruit…
This recipe is different from the usual one you find packed in a box of pectin, because, well, it doesn’t use pectin. Instead, you thicken the jam by cooking it a lot longer. This means it tastes less like fresh fruit; but it has a wonderful taste of its own, a bit like dried apricots, and a nice gloopy texture. As a bonus, putting an apricot kernel1 in every jar gradually adds an almond-y aroma2.
The Pep Talk
Making jam is much easier (and safer) than most people think. After all, 100 years ago everyone used to can food, unless they were millionaire financiers or nomadic tribesmen. If our primitive ancestors could do it, so can you! And jam is easier than canning vegetables because the acidity of the fruit inhibits microorganisms, so you don’t have to be paranoid about sterilizing everything.
Jamming basically boils down [sorry] to mixing the fruit with lots of sugar and some lemon juice, cooking it, and pouring it into clean canning jars. The heat of the boiling jam helps sterilize the jar, and turning it upside down at first gets the lid too. As the air at the top cools, it shrinks and forms a partial vacuum that holds the lid on tightly to maintain the seal.
The jam keeps for years, although unless you make a lot of it, you’ll run out long before then. We’ve eaten three-year-old jam that still tasted great. A very few jars go bad — maybe one in 20 — and a bad jar is pretty obvious because it’s either lost its seal or has mold on top, so you just throw it away and get another one.
It takes only about an hour of active time, it will make your house smell amazing, and you’ll end up with yummy jam and syrup that you can enjoy for years. Do it!
But: Read The Directions All The Way Through First. Some of the details are important.
Requirements
You’ll need to buy:
- Apricots, duh. Firm and slightly under-ripe if possible. (As a rough estimate, it takes about 1 1/2 cups of cut-up apricots to make an 8 oz jar of jam.)
- Lots of sugar. Get one of those big sacks. Don’t skimp on sugar or the jam won’t turn out right. NutraSweet™ is right out.
- Several lemons.
- 8oz canning jars, usually made by Ball or Mason. Most supermarkets have them, usually in the baking aisle. Make sure the jars come with the screw-on rings that hold the lids on.
- Jar lids. These are usually sold separately because, unlike the jars, they’re not re-usable. Make sure they’re the right diameter for your jars.
Your kitchen needs to have:
- A big non-aluminum3 cooking pot.
- A big stirring spoon, ideally wood.
- A ladle.
- Optional: A quart-size jar or sealable plastic container (for the syrup).
- Optional: a hammer (to extract the kernels).
Preparing The Fruit
Cut the apricots in half and put them in a large non-aluminum cooking pot. Set aside the pits for later. For each cup of apricots, add 3/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice.
Let the mixture stand at least two hours, and watch as the magic force of osmosis sucks the water out of the apricots, dissolving them and the sugar into yummy goo.
Cooking
Now put the pot on the stove and bring the goo to a boil over high heat. At first you’ll just need to stir occasionally to keep it from scorching, then as it comes to a boil you’ll need to stir continuously. Once it’s at a steady boil, set a timer for 25 minutes and keep stirring…
When it first starts boiling, it’s going to produce lots and lots of pale orange foam, which you’re going to have to skim off with a ladle to keep the pot from overflowing. When I was a kid, we serendipitously discovered that, if you put the foam in a quart jar and let it settle, it turns into apricot syrup. Do this!! The syrup is awesome on pancakes or ice cream. Keep it in the fridge.
The foaming will stop, I promise, even though you’ll feel like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice for a few minutes. Then just keep stirring, stirring, stirring…
When the timer goes off, take a look at the mixture. If it still seems liquidy, let it boil another five minutes (but no more). The goal is to have reduced the volume by about half, and for what’s left to be fairly thick; sort of like boiling jam. When it’s ready, turn off the heat.
Flashback: Preparing The Jars
You will have first prepared4 a bunch of canning jars. The jars will have just gone through the dishwasher (even if they’re new). The lids will have been soaking in a bowl with boiling water poured over them. The rings will have been just sitting around.
(If you didn’t first prepare this stuff, while the apricots were dissolving in sugar, you’re in trouble now. Serves you right for not reading the recipe through! All you can do is let the jam cool a bit, pour it into any clean containers you have around, and put it in the fridge. You’ll have to eat it all in a few weeks. Get friends to help.)
As an optional but recommended bonus: Extract enough kernels from the pits so you have one intact kernel per jar. To do this, get a hammer and put the pit on a clean cloth on a very hard surface like the sidewalk. Whack the pit with the hammer, hard enough to crack it open but not hard enough to mush the kernel inside, which looks like a little almond. This takes a bit of practice, so it’s a good thing you have dozens of pits.
Filling The Jars
Now fill each jar as follows: Take it out of the dishwasher, turn it right-side-up (very important!), drop in an apricot kernel, and ladle jam into it up to about 1/4” below the rim. Try not to get jam on the rim5. (The right amount of airspace is important for getting the jar to seal.) Put a lid on top6, then screw a ring over it tightly. Turn the jar upside-down (very important!) Go on to the next jar. Repeat till you run out of jam.
You’ll probably end up with a half-full jar at the end. This won’t seal properly, so keep it in the fridge. Or if you run out of jars first, you can put the remaining jam into any other closeable containers you have around, and put them in the fridge. Either way, the refrigerated jam will keep for a few weeks.
When the last jar is filled and flipped over, set a timer for 5 minutes. When it bleeps, flip all of the jars back upright and let them stand for a little while. You should soon hear a little metallic “ping!” sound as each jar seals shut — the cooling air shrinks and forms a partial vacuum that pulls the lid tight and makes it flip from convex to concave.
If any jars haven’t popped shut by themselves in 15 minutes, they’re not properly sealed, so put them in the fridge and eat the jam soon.
Tighten the sealed jars’ rings some more, and label them with the type of jam and the approximate date. In a reasonably cool place (basements are good) they’ll keep for at least 2 years.
(Before you open a jar for the first time, press on the lid to make sure it’s still sealed. If you can pop the lid down, or if you can pull it off without a fair amount of force, it’s lost its seal and you should throw the jam away. But this happens really rarely.)
Notes
[1] As a child, I knew that apricot kernels were full of deadly cyanide, and felt sort of nervous about using them in the jam. (But not too nervous to eat it.) It turns out, though, that the concentration is really pretty minimal.
[2] I am told that almond extract is often made from apricot pits, and that marzipan sometimes is too.
[3] The acid in the fruit would react with the aluminum, giving the jam a nasty metallic taste.
[4] I’ve always wanted to write that!
[5] A canning funnel, which is a squat wide-mouthed funnel, is helpful here. Your better cooking-supply stores, like Williams-Sonoma, should carry them.
[6] Don’t forget that the water the lids are in is still hot! Tongs are one way to get them out. Even better, we have a nifty magnetic-tipped wand we got from Ball a few years ago.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:51 AM
has any one tried to add crushed pineapple . and how much more suger would i need to put in
July 10th, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Hi, I tried this recipe today and the jam turned out pretty good. We have a apricot tree in our backyard, now they won’t go waste. Thanks for the recipe!
July 11th, 2009 at 11:41 AM
My girls and I are making this now. We’ve tried other recipes and are eager to try one w/o pectin and w/o boiling the jars to make them pop. Glad I read the comments as we only have 6 cups of apricots left for canning. We have made syrup, dried apricots and pies as well and shared frest fruit with all our neighbors & friends. My kids LOVE to freeze them whole, then pop a frozen apricot into their mouth (unthawed) in January - the flavor melts in your mouth and the unseasonal treat is delicious.
July 12th, 2009 at 6:42 PM
I reallly would like to add crushed pineapple to this recipe as my mom always did and it was always treat can I do that and not ruin the integrity of the jam itself ?
July 12th, 2009 at 7:32 PM
After reading all of the comments I am committed to embarking on this canning adventure- beginning with your jam. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Another thing, I have a suspicion that if people are using ripened and soft(er) apricots they are getting a more watery batch and that the more solid scotched batches are the result of too much sugar + too rapid a boil.
Thoughts?
July 12th, 2009 at 9:09 PM
I have just read the comments and I too am going to attempt to make this recipe.
I have a tree in the back yard that produce every other year, thank God! because it bears a lot of fruit.
My concern is these are the small yellow apricots not the large ones with yellow or white meat, will that make a difference? I am going to try it anyway.
July 13th, 2009 at 6:11 PM
Damn. Hot damn. Literally.
I didn’t realize that the lids had to be hot when they went on the jar. Common sense I guess but I didn’t know. The jam however is delish and I cannot wait to climb the tree tomorrow to try again. Thanks Jens.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:06 AM
I was looking for an apricot jam recipe that didn’t require peeling the fruit, so I’m giving this one a try today.
If I could add one tip: after you fill the jars to 1/4” from the top, wipe off the rims of the jars with a clean, damp rag. This makes for clean contact with the lids. No air can get in.
My new dishwasher doesn’t have a heated dry cycle, which I had always used to keep clean jars hot, so now I have to keep them hot in the oven ( tip from my 80 year old friend who preserves everything). If you keep everything superclean and hot, you shouldn’t loose any jars to mold. I’ve never lost a jar of jam to mold, and I never process jam in a canner like the canning books direct.
My mom and grandma used almond extract instead of the kernel.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:13 PM
I reused the lids from the jars, but two sealed and the other three i checked my gently pressing the top and it popped and sealed when i barely touched them does that mean it sealed they all sealed or I cant reuse them? Im making more but i was wondering cause i kept some of the jars and i dont know if its safe to keep and store or i should just give them away to friends before it goes bad.
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:05 PM
This recipe had exactly what I was looking for - proportions of fruit and sugar in cups, not by weight. But reading the comments is an education in itself; I can’t believe how many people managed to screw up something simple like making JAM! It’s a scary commentary on the state of our world today.
However, for those of you who actually use common sense, here’s a trick: if you have fruit going bad and no time to stir jam, use the crockpot. It can boil all day with only a quick whirl now and then and never stick or burn. In fact, it will take all day to cook. For this recipe, skip the juicing out step because that will happen naturally while the contents of the crock pot come up to boiling.
FYI: you wash jars with soap and water to clean them, and you heat them with the boiling water so that they don’t break when you pour hot jam in them. You aren’t going to get them sterile unless you boil them for about 20 minutes, and you don’t need to, anyway. Sugar in this concentration will prevent cooked fruit from molding for a long, long time, even at room temperature.
Good job, Jens. You have the patience of Job!
July 27th, 2009 at 12:43 AM
Thank you!! Kudos, to you!! My husbamd and I just finished canning our first batch of Apricot jam, because of your recipe and technique, it was soooo easy! It couldn’t have gone any smoother.
P.S. We recommend wearing t-shirts, and canning in an air-conditioned home!
July 27th, 2009 at 11:29 AM
What a well-worded info article…thank you!
August 1st, 2009 at 11:22 PM
09Aug01
Thanks. FYI a plain old nutcracker can be used to crack the apricot pit. I used one the other day when I stewed up some apricots. My mother always canned the fruit and placed a whole pit in each jar. Good to know the seed inside is what is needed and is now ok to use. And, I’ve never made jam before without cooking the filled jars. Onward to upside-down land!
August 7th, 2009 at 11:16 PM
august 8/09
thanks for a great recipe. we used apricots from our trees in the okanagan and it came out beautifully. thanks a million. it is as good as the jam my granny used to make.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:16 AM
First of all, I think it’s hilarious that the #1 google hit for “apricot jam recipe” is on a tech blog. But a great recipe it is—thank you! I decided to use it for my first-ever batch of apricot jam because the method is the same as the one I used a few weeks ago for my first-ever strawberry rhubarb jam, which turned out beautifully—way better than a pectin-added recipe that I also experimented with at the same time.
Just wanted to add a few notes I thought might be useful to others reading the comments. Like a much earlier commenter, I was leery about using volume measures rather than weight measures for something oddly-shaped and unpackable like quartered apricots, and so I managed to find another recipe online with a similar method but weight measures. I ended up cross-pollinating the two. I’ve got three and 3/4 eight-oz jars of perfect, bright-orange-gold, deeply apricot flavoured, jammy-consistency jam, so it obviously worked.
I used 1 kg apricots (weight before stoning) to 700 grammes sugar. Curious to know how this compared to Jens’ recipe, I measured it out and found that I had about 6 cups of quartered fruit and about four and a half 3/4-cup measures of sugar. Following Jens’ method would have meant six 3/4-cup measures of sugar, so my jam had somewhat less sugar. I added Jens’ recommended amount of lemon juice, but followed the other recipe’s instructions to let it sit and macerate, covered, for 18 (!) hours. After 18 hours I had apricots floating in syrup, with the ones on top starting to oxidize to brown. It turned out to make no difference to the colour of the jam.
Boiling was super-straightfoward. I boiled it in a wide-bottomed dutch oven for about 25 minutes, stirred it often but not constantly (it showed no sign of scorching), skimmed it hardly at all. I think that overly-vigilant skimming might be the reason that some commenters have ended up with hard jam—they skimmed half the liquid off! When the bit of foam I did skim started to settle into syrup, I poured the syrup back into the pan. The jam was ready, just as Jens said, when it looked like boiling jam. This wonderfully simple notion had previously worked for my strawberry-rhubarb batch—no messing with candy thermometers or chilled saucers. Just “hey, that looks like jam!”
So, thanks again. The jam is awesome, and I am hooked on jam-making with this method. Next up, sour cherry!
August 12th, 2009 at 6:59 PM
Thanks for the recipe, Jens! I made two big pots of this late last night. Still waiting for some good bread or biscuits to try it out on, but it sure looks like a win. My only regret is forgetting to put in the nuts I shelled until the last two jars!
August 17th, 2009 at 7:47 AM
I have just made some apricot jam using the same recipe and it seems to work well. I am surprised how simple it is.
I am trying to solve a more challenging problem , I want to play music on my iphone and record at the same time. Is this possible if the music is already stored on my iphone? I am not asking how to do this just if it is possible.
Sorry if this is out of order by from your blogs it seems you are nice guy.. Thanks.
August 17th, 2009 at 7:48 AM
I have just made some apricot jam using the same recipe and it seems to work well. I am surprised how simple it is.
I want to play music on my iphone and record at the same time. Is this possible if the music is already stored on my iphone? I am not asking how to do this just if it is possible.
Sorry if this is out of order by from your blogs it seems you are nice guy.. Thanks.I am trying to solve a more challenging problem ,
August 21st, 2009 at 3:02 PM
Can I freeze the jam instead of canning it?
January 8th, 2010 at 8:44 PM
Thank you so much Jens for having such a lovely style in presenting your info, encouragement & humour, for the “simple man”.
I remember when “Fowlers Vacola” preserving kits were all the rage in Australia in the 1970’s. They always seemed realing daunting and way too technical for me to use.
Having just moved into a house with an apricot tree, bursting with fruit. It would be such a shame to see any of it go to waste. But now that I’ve read your recipe from start to finish, it won’t. I feel confident that “I can do it”. I just have to gently,get re-acquainted with the ladder first (don’t much care for heights).
it will be a lovely step back in time for me, to the “olden days” and a great new skill to pass on to my 12 year old daughters.
Wish us luck!!!
Bless you Jens for sharing with us.
I’m sure i can’t go wrong & it will be “Simply The Best”
Cheers
Michelle