Sep 25

Sep 25 Mirabelle Jam

I've been seeing mirabelles at markets all over for the past couple weeks; I wasn't quite sure what they were. But just two days ago, I happened to stumble upon David Lebovitz's Mirabelle Jam Recipe. Not only does he give a great explanation of what they are - "tiny cherry-tomato-sized fruits that are sweet, with a rich plum flavor and little acidity" - he follows it up with a simple recipe for jam. And with that, I was easily persuaded into making my first jam.

While I was walking with a friend down Rue Mouffetard yesterday, I decided to pick up a small bag of mirabelles for this experiment. I ended up getting nowhere near the 450g he calls for in the recipe.

To try and calculate the proportions for the rest of the ingredients, I decided to wait until they were cooked down. His recipe (with 450g or 1lb) said you would end up with about 2 cups of cooked mirabelles.

Making Mirabelle Jam: cooking Mirabelles

After about 10 minutes of cooking, my mirabelle quantity measured one half cup. So my version would be only 1/4 of his.

Making Mirabelle Jam: Mirabelles cooked down with sugar

Making Mirabelle Jam: jammy Mirabelles - almost there!

To divide 2/3 cup of sugar for 1/4 of the recipe... no idea, google math to the rescue! Then, I searched for the equivalent of .165 of one cup. I needed it in familiar baking terms, which ended up being just under 3 tablespoons of sugar. I stirred it up, added a squeeze of lemon and continued cooking on medium heat.

Voila! It looked so nice and rich, but it was much too hot to taste. This amount took up half the space of a reused Maille mustard jar; the perfect amount for two of us.

It's only supposed to keep for about 2 weeks, but I'm sure we'll gobble it down in no time. I've already had a taste (or two) on today's baguette.

If you're interested in making your own jam, click on the link above to head to David Lebovitz's blog. You can also substitute other sweet plums for mirabelles.

xo,
Whitney