A good friend of ours, let’s call him Anthony Bianco (pictured eating sandwich), came up 
for a visit last weekend and with him about twenty file kilos of apples picked fresh from northern Victoria. It seams he has stumbled upon a tree close enough to a fence line and ripe for the picking, and so helped reduce the terrible burden to the tree’s owners. Now I love eating apples as much as the next guy, but the more opportunist side of me started thinking of what to do with our bequeathed bounty.
Yesterday morning before work I found myself perusing our kitchen library for ideas. The obvious option is apple sauce, and I will make some soon, but today I felt like something new. Tucked away in the pages of the Country Women’s Association Preserve Cook Book I found this little gem, thanks Bev Perkins from East Launceston.
To make jam thick you need pectin, most fruits contain this and turn the jam to the correct consistency during the cooking process naturally but some require a little more tweaking. The pectin in apple is found in the core and skin and so these need to be saved for use during the jam making process and later discarded before bottling.
Most jams are equal parts fruit to sugar with any additional ingredients added for flavour, In this case a small amount of fresh grated ginger gives it a tart kick that really sets it off. So after peeling and coring the apples I diced the fruit and placed it in a covered bowl with a muslin bag containing the skins and cores, I then sprinkled the sugar over the mix. Letting the mix sit overnight I combined it with the fresh ginger to a pan and slowly boiled it for about an hour before bottling.
The next cold morning I get it’s Bev Perkins’ Ginger Apple jam on toast with a strong black coffee, can’t wait. This recipe is worth trying, as with any CWA recipe and I can strongly advise purchase of their preserving cook book.
Classic Marine Iguana 
mmm i love ginger and apple. This looks like a fantastic idea!
Yum! I love preserves!
We had this for breakfast this morning, WOW!
It has the taste and texture of a mild honey, beautifull.
Yummy!
We are definitely going to make this when we pick apples in the fall. I will link back to your blog when we do.
Good luck, I’m making another batch this weekend.
Ooh this looks lovely. I’ve made pear and ginger jam, but never used just apples! Yum.
Pear and ginger sounds good too! Does that end up anything like honey I wonder… ?
I don’t think it did. It had quite a mild flavour – definitely pear-ey and not too sweet. It wasn’t as moreish as stronger jams like raspberry, but still good to eat!
Oh yum!
Really gorgeous photos!!
Thank you Jen, it tastes good too
I love the way that looks and sounds!
OOOh sounds yummy especially on a cold Victorian morning !
Maybe one jar tucked away for visitors?
Like another response – I used to make Pear and Ginger jam when we lived in WA – mmm.
There will be more made because the first lot is nearly gone! We will save you some 🙂 Was the pear and ginger from the magic fruit tree backyard?
Yes – that magic fruit tree back
and side yard shone !
I think I should try it with mango… Cus the mango season is in in west Africa and you can get them really cheap
I’ll definitely try it!
I REALLY want to try this, but with pears and cloves…My grandmother use to make these preserves that I never learned how but I remember seeing her let them sit in sugar. THANKS!
I like the sound of that. I did some pears years ago with cinnamon and cloves and would eat it on porridge and it was the business! A jam version sounds great… I’m glad it made you think of your grandmother 🙂
Yums! Homemade apple jam, with ginger – must have been delicious!
right, I’m gonna try this soon…. 🙂 LOVE ginger.
Looks so delicious! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Rigoniman, I can’t believe you’re a jam-making tradie. My husband has several brickie, sparky and chippy friends (getting all Aussie here) and NONE of them cook. In fact, they’re mostly of the orientation that it’s inappropriate for a tradie to cook when the kitchen wench can do it instead!! Haha. I think the fact that you vouch for the CWA cookbook is pretty spectacular. Like. Muchly.
Anyway, back to the recipe. It sounds delicious! Twenty five kilos of apples is kinda ridiculous though, you must’ve made a hell of a lot of jam. And tarts. And pies. And hopefully, toasted cheese sandwiches with grated apple in them, as I strangely happen to like that combination. I would love to make this jam. Is it a 1:1 ratio of fruit to sugar like most jams? I’d also love to put some thyme in there with the apples… possibly without the ginger. I absolutely love herbs with fruit jam. Thanks!
Jam-making tradies are the best.
With all the different homes we get to visit something is normally abundant in the gardens and most people are up for a produce swap. It’s very old fashion but I’m bringing it back!
Apple in toasted cheese sandwiches, I’m going to try this one.
This jam is quite unusual, it tastes of apple but tricks you into thinking it has honey in it, it’s incredible. The ginger in this jam is very mild and if anything adds a tartness that very-much works.
Thanks for all your kind words,
rigoniman
Go you, I hope the idea spreads! I’ve got a few colleagues at work who grow fresh limes, carambola, oranges and herbs. They’ve been dropping bags off on my desk as I’ve promised to give them a portion of whatever I make (so far it’s been marmalade, pickles and lemon meringue). Come to think of it, one of the aforementioned tradies did drop off about 3kg of mandarins at our house last year (I don’t think he knew what to do with them). I made him some marmalade (he’s not as evolved as you, obviously).
I’m looking forward to trying the jam! Thanks man!