Simple Rhubarb & Gin Jam has an unusually clean, fresh flavour with a gentle hint of vanilla from the seeds which are flecked throughout it. The beautiful pink colour comes from the forced rhubarb used in this recipe! Even if you’re not a gin lover you will love this jam!
I cannot lie, I am totally obsessed with jam making and nothing brings me greater pleasure than developing new recipes. So I’m very excited to introduce you to my Simple Rhubarb & Gin Jam. I made this live on Instagram on Tuesday so thank you if you joined me or watched later.
Someone even said I should do this more often, so I’ll be sure to publicise any future live jam making sessions!
As is often the way, my jam adventure started after finding 3 packets of rhubarb in the supermarket going for a song so I knew they were destined to be jam. I’m pretty sure this was forced rhubarb as the stalks were very fine and pink with not trace of green on them even though a quick Google tells me that the season should end in March!
For those not familiar, forced rhubarb is grown in a small geographical triangle in West Yorkshire in pitch black sheds and picked by candlelight. The dark makes the stems dark pink, sweet and tart and the leaves yellow.
I’m sure this recipe would work well with normal outdoor rhubarb too but don’t be surprised if the colour isn’t the same! After throwing away all the rotten stalks and bad bits I was left with 450 g of rhubarb but for 9 p I wasn’t complaining!
So then the question was what type of jam was I going to make? My first idea was to re-shoot my Rhubarb, Lemon & Vanilla Jam but then I realised I needed to soak the fruit and sugar overnight. As my rhubarb was on its last legs I didn’t want to delay my jam making.
Hence I needed to come up with a new recipe and as I didn’t have any other soft fruits in the house my options were limited.
I cast a beady eye around my kitchen and saw three miniature bottles of gin on the counter. I’d been meaning to try them but not being a gin drinker I had dragged my feet and so they were just still sat there.
I think I must have tried rhubarb flavoured gin or seen it on one of my trips to food fairs so a Simple Rhubarb & Gin Jam didn’t seem like a far fetched idea. I gave all my samples a sniff and picked the fruitiest smelling one which was called Star of Bombay.
So what was my Simple Rhubarb & Gin Jam like I hear you ask?
Well I have to say it was utterly divine. The combination of the sweet and tart forced rhubarb with it’s tender pale pink stems, the gin, lemon and vanilla seeds all came together to give a beautifully refreshing and pure flavour and the most gorgeous pale pink colour (not fully captured by the photographs). The gin and rhubarb were indeed a match made in food heaven.
Hubby loved my jam too and we enjoyed it on scones with clotted cream which were totally scrumptious. Our close is having a street party to celebrate Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding so I’m going to be bringing homemade scones, clotted cream and this jam as we’re having a high tea theme.
As all the alcohol is boiled away you don’t need to worry about giving this jam to children.
More Rhubarb Jam recipes:
- Rhubarb & Strawberry Jam
- Rhubarb & Ginger Jam
- Rhubarb, Lemon & Vanilla Jam
- Rhubarb & Ginger Jam
- Rhubarb & Orange Jam
So if you want to know how to make this rhubarb jam check out the recipe below!
Pin my Simple Rhubarb & Gin Jam for later!
Simple Rhubarb & Gin Jam
Ingredients
- 450 g forced rhubarb prepared weight
- 450 g granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice plus skin from half the squeezed lemon
- 2 tbsp gin I used Star of Bombay
- ½ vanilla pod seeds scraped
Instructions
- Prepare the rhubarb by washing, trimming the ends and any bad bits and cut into roughly 2 cm pieces.
- Place rhubarb, sugar, lemon juice, gin, vanilla seeds and the lemon skin into a bowl and leave to soak for an hour or overnight.
- Meanwhile sterilise 2 x 250 ml jars (see notes below) and put a couple of saucers in the freezer for testing the set.
- Start to make the jam by tipping the rhubarb mixture into a preserving pan or similar.
- Place pan on a gentle heat to allow the sugar to completely dissolve, stirring the whole time (do not simmer).
- Once the sugar has dissolved (any gritty noises will have vanished) turn up the heat and bring to a rolling boil and then start timing for 8 minutes
- Take the pan off the heat and place a few drops of jam onto one of the chilled saucers then pop in the fridge for a minute.
- Then push your finger through the jam and if a gel has formed then the jam is ready, if the jam is still liquid then boil for another 2 minutes and so on until set is reached.
- Remove the half lemon skin then pot up into the sterilised hot jars and seal with lids immediately.
- Store in a cool dry place. Once open store in fridge and use within 2 - 3 months.
Liv
Hi!
I made this jam today – I prefer a more tart jam so for my second batch I doubled the rhubarb & gin etc but kept the sugar the same. The sweet jam will be perfect in a cake and the sharper one will be great on scones 🙂
Camilla
Great Liv, you’ll probably want to store the one with half the sugar in the fridge as I don’t think it will have the keeping quality of the higher sugar one.
Oni
Looks delicious and I want to try this. Can you water bath can/process this to make it shelf stable and safe and if so for how long? Also, is there another liquor that would work well instead of gin? I have plain white Rain vodka and plain white rum. Thanks
Camilla
Hi Oni, I’m afraid I know nothing about water bathing as it’s not something we do in Europe so I would treat it like any other jam that you would water bath. This jam is shelf stable and jam has been known to still be safe 20 yrs after it was made but is best eaten in the first year. I’m not really a drinker but rum would be totally wrong in this jam, perhaps vodka would work as I think it’s more akin to gin? But the gin works so beautifully, I’d try and borrow a splash from friend or neighbour.
Lynn Barlow
Could you use frozen rhubarb?
Camilla
Yes, you can use frozen fruit in any jam recipe:-)
Roberta Stasyk
Thanks so much, Camilla! I’m making batch #3 right now 🙂
Question for you, please – what do you mean by the “skin” of the squeezed lemon? I used the zest from one lemon. I’m worried that including the pith will make my jam bitter.
Thanks again for the terrific recipe!
Camilla
Hi Roberta, my bad, I’ve updated the instructions to make it clearer. The half lemon skin is what you have after juicing and goes into the pan to add pectin and is then removed before potting up.
Roberta
Thanks, Camilla! I’m doing this with the batch I’m making tonight. It will be interesting to see if there’s any difference from the batch I made with lemon zest.
Roberta
Camilla
Fab, yes, I imagine tonight’s batch will be slightly less lemony.
jane
how much pectin — not included.
Camilla
Hi Jane, I don’t use pectin in any of my jam recipes. I use lemon juice in recipes where the fruit is low pectin which aids the gel formation.
Carol L.
Hello,
Not sure if this question is out of the realm of your experience but….I made rhubarb infused gin and now I have a bowl of rather delicious gin infused rhubarb slices. I don’t want to waste them. Wondering if you think I could make jam with them? I have nothing to lose…
Camilla
Hi Carol, it is out of my realm of experience but I would give it a go, perhaps add some more rhubarb to balance the flavour?
Lizz
Well I am impressed. I have a rhubarb plant in my garden and I’m always trying to find something else to make with it other than crumbles, thought I would give this a try and I was not disappointed!
My rhubarb is mainly green not much red and the gin I used was strawberry as that’s all I had. But delicious!
I shall be making this again possibly with a less sweet gin and cooking it a little longer so it’s thicker.
Thanks x
Camilla
So glad you like the recipe Lizz and strawberry gin sounds fab but you probably wouldn’t get the “clean and fresh” flavour experience. And yes keep doing the plate test until you get a crinkle if you didn’t find the jam thick enough, the timing is just a guide and starting point as all fruit has differing amounts of moisture in it.
Lara
I tripled the recipe as I had a ton of rhubarb. Didn’t add the vanilla as I had no pods. The 8 mins rolling boil wasn’t enough time to thicken but an extra 30 mins simmering did the trick! What a tasty jam and I love how pectin isn’t required for thickening. The extra cooking time makes for a very uniform texture. No floating fruit! Will definetly make again.
Camilla
Hi Lara, so glad you like the recipe! Yes increasing the quantity would increase the cooking time. I’ve never encountered floating fruit in any of my jams so I don’t think the longer cooking time made any difference to that.
Wendy Towers
How is your jam not lumpy ?
Camilla
Hi Wendy, have you made it and yours is?
Kim Marie
I was given some home grown rhubarb, I had him in the cupboard and strawberries from last year’s crop in the freezer. I followed your instructions, choosing to leave the fruit and sugar etc overnight. I did the same with the gin recipe and used a rose and pomegranate flavoured one.
The boil times were perfect. I now have 5 jars of delicious jam.
Camilla
Fab Kim! Did you make my Rhubarb & Strawberry Jam too then?