Rhubarb Jam

 

 

 

 

 

As recently mentioned, it’s rhubarb season! Although I have a nice plant of my own that keeps me eating rhubarb for a couple of months, my Dad has an entire row of rhubarb in his garden.  I always make one trip to Oregon in April for Easter and/or my dad’s birthday and take the opportunity to bring home a few pounds of rhubarb.  In all these years, however, I’d never made rhubarb jam.  I decided to rectify that this year. 

 

Just as with desserts, most jam recipes combine rhubarb with a sweet fruit like strawberries.  But I like pure rhubarb.  I think the whole point of rhubarb is its nice tangy flavor!  I picked a recipe that was easy to adjust based on the amount of rhubarb (I always want to call rhubarb "fruit" but it’s actually a vegetable). 

 

I was really happy with the way this turned out.  It really captured the essence of rhubarb.  It’s a little tart but nice on morning toast.  It would also be good with poultry or pork.  One of my all time favorite dishes was foie gras with rhubarb chutney and I imagine this would work in place of the chutney, too.  After tasting it I may go back and revisit some of the recipes that included orange juice or zest as there seems to be almost a hint of orange in this jam.  Adding the orange would bring that out a bit more. 

 

You should be able to find plenty of rhubarb at farmers’ markets or in your grocery stores about now. 

 

You can find the recipe I used here.