Carrot Cake Jam

This is what got me started canning. About 14 years ago, a copy of this recipe ran in the local free newspaper, and I thought 'damn, I can do that'. It wasn't a complete recipe, it left off the details of how to process the jars, but I found that info somewhere else. It just sounded too good not to try.

Not quite like that, but it tastes quite like that. It looks more like this.

All photos were pilfered from flickr, under creative commons.

Carrot Cake Jam

1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots
1 1/2 cups chopped cored pears
1 3/4 cups canned pineapple, including juice
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 package powdered pectin
6 1/2 cups sugar

In a large saucepan, combine carrots, pears, pineapple and juices and spices. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently for 20 mins, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and whisk in pectin until dissolved. Bring back up to the boil and then add the sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil. Boil hard, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off any foam. (Or not, I dont mind the foam, some people are fussy about looks.)

Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Cap and process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Makes approx 6 250 ml jars.