I’ve been keeping this blog long enough that I’m starting to repeat myself. This rhubarb jam, for instances, is nothing more than a simplified, scaled down version of the one I posted in the first year I was writing here (there’s also a very similar recipe in my first cookbook).
The honest truth of it is that I can as much for myself as I do to create content for this site, and I very much love this easy little preserve. And so I make it every year or two, each time tweaked slightly. I thought you’d like to see how I do it when I’m only making a little bit.
You could also use this recipe as a starting place for a strawberry rhubarb jam. Either swap in berries for half the rhubarb, or double it (I know that I typically discourage people from doubling small batch recipes, but because this one has a touch of pectin, it scales up nicely).
Small Batch Vanilla Rhubarb Jam
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 pounds rhubarb diced
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon powdered fruit pectin I use Ball's Flex Pectin
- 1 vanilla bean split and scraped
- juice of 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- Prepare a small boiling water bath canner and 2 half pint jars.
- Place the chopped rhubarb in a low, wide non-reactive pan. Whisk the pectin and vanilla bean seeds into the sugar and add it to the fruit. Drop the split vanilla bean into the pan and add the lemon juice.
- Stir well and let it sit until the sugar looks damp.
- Set the pan on the stove over high heat and bring to a boil. If the sugar begins to caramelize, reduce the heat.
- Cook, stirring regularly, until the rhubarb breaks down and the liquid looks thick and jammy.
- Remove the pan from the heat and divide the jam between the two prepared jars (depending on how much water the rhubarb contained, you may have a couple tablespoons leftover. I recommend stirring the leftover into some plain yogurt).
- Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.
- When the time is up, remove the jars from canner and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool and seal.
Have you ever tried to use frozen rhubarb? Just curious….I made jam with frozen blueberries and strawberries and it has turned out well.
I’ve done it. Mine set up fine. I don’t bother with pectin for rhubarb jams, just boil it down a bit thicker than usual. (Of course, Marisa wrote the book on this recipe, so you should follow her advice!) The frozen tends to be the less perfect stalks and may not be as red.
If I use frozen rhubarb in this recipe, how do I know how much to use? Do I weigh the thawed rhubarb, and do I drain it first or just include the juices and cook them off?
Oh, how I am drooling over the looks of that fresh rhubarb. How I so wish it would grow here in Texas but gets too hot in the summer months and not cold enough in the winter months. :{
When I hovered my cursor over the second picture. just wished it’d come through my screen and land on my desk. Wonderful recipe.
I created a rhubarb-orange jam that was just delicious the other day. We had a bit of rhubarb left over after doing a rhubarb crumble for dessert, so we stewed the rhubarb with a chopped up navel orange (peel and all), and then added a bit of sugar and cooked it down considerably. SO GOOD.
This afternoon I made a batch of “rhubarb/strawberry” jam. I used 1 cup of frozen red currant juice from last year’s crop, 3 cups of sliced fresh rhubarb & part of a cup of frozen sliced strawberries from the past year’s harvest, with water added to make a full cup, Macerated the fruit with 1 cup of sugar for several hours, then heated & stirred until the rhubarb was soft, about 5 minutes. Added 4 more cups of sugar, brought it up to the boil & boiled for 4 minutes, then put it in the jars. It made 5 half pints, plus a little. I didn’t bother to process because it is going to friends & will be eaten by the end of the holiday weekend.
The red currant juice provided both pectin & a deep red color. The strawberries provided the dominant flavor (the entire house smells like strawberry jam!), with undertones of rhubarb that are just enouigh to make you notice. It is SO GOOD! I do love playing in the rhubarb!
thanks so much for this… and after last week’s webinar, I can totally visualize how this works. Will hopefully make a little next weekend! (with our cool spring, the rhubarb is lasting longer than usual)
Just got my hands on a copy of preserving by the pint – looks like I’m going to have a LOT more fun doing this; no more hours and hours of work:)
I noticed that most of your small batches are put up in half pint jars and would like to know how many ounces that is. I’ve gotten myself confused; I have a bunch of 4oz jars that I was planning on filling up for Christmas gifts. But that would be a quarter pint, right? So would the water bath processing time be the same?
Half pint jars hold 8 ounces. However, the 4 ounce jars work equally well for the recipes in Preserving by the Pint. The processing times are the same.
thank you!
A good one…. I created a rhubarb-orange jam that was just delicious the other day. We had a bit of rhubarb left over after doing a rhubarb crumble for dessert, so we stewed the rhubarb with a chopped up navel orange (peel and all), and then added a bit of sugar and cooked it down considerably. SO GOOD.
thanks…If I use frozen rhubarb in this recipe, how do I know how much to use? Do I weigh the thawed rhubarb, and do I drain it first or just include the juices and cook them off?
Thaw and weigh including the juices.
I love rhubarb, but the color of it alone isn’t appealing to me. I saw a suggestion above of red currant juice for color. Are there any other juices that would compliment the flavor and brighten the color? Would a couple drops of red food coloring work?
Red currant or a bit of beet juice might help with the color. I wouldn’t put food coloring in the preserves, simply because I don’t like the idea of adding chemicals to my preserves. But no judgment if that’s how you choose to go.
I’m not too thrilled about the colour of processed rhubarb as the plants I grow are mostly green stemmed. When I’m concentrating on colour as in a rhubarb jelly I scout around I my patch to find young pink stalks. That being said, I have tried using beet root powder to change the green to something more appealing and this works if you add the powder at the end of the cooking time AND you don’t process the jars in a water bath canner which heats the product up again. It is the heat which seems to fade the beet root intense colour.
love that rhubarb…thank you for the post.
For those looking to add color to the jam, pomegranate juice would also be a great option!
I’ve popped enough pips to know that the color is quite permanent…and quite delicious.
How would you adjust this recipe to make it freezer jam?
Put it in the freezer rather than can it.
I LOVE this idea, but I’m hesitant to spend $6-8 on a vanilla bean for it. Do you think I could substitute with extract? If so, how much should I use?
Extracts don’t work particularly well in jam making, as they are alcohol-based. That allows their flavor to cook off quickly and not make much of an impact. If you want a middle ground, a tablespoon of vanilla bean paste is a good substitute for a vanilla bean and is more affordable.
Made this today. On the sweeter side but absolutely delicious and sets up like a dream. I doubled it and used quarter pint jars but other than that followed the recipe exactly.
So glad it turned out well for you! And if you’re ever in a position where you feel the jam is too sweet at the end of cooking, try adding another squirt of lemon juice. It really helps balance out the sweetness.