Marrow & ginger jam

[Wowbagger]

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/marrow-ginger-jam

We have 3 courgette plants in the garden and they produce courgettes faster than we can eat them. I actually find them a tasteless vegetable and a fairly unpleasant texture. I can see why gardeners like them because the fruit grows to monstrous proportions if you don't check the plants every day.

A couple of days ago I cut one which weighed over 2kg. We had a big bit of ginger and all the necessary ingredients so decided to make marrow & ginger jam. We started it in mid-afternoon and it's still boiling away. I put in a whole bottle of Certo and it just isn't setting. I initially anticipated about 8lb of jam but I reckon it's not going to be much more than 4 - if I can ever get the bloody stuff to set.

So much for the recipe above recommending boiling it for "10 to 15 minutes" until the jam has reached setting point. It's been boiling for at least 6 hours and maybe as many as 8.

[hellymedic]

Jam needs to be 60-65% sugar to set. Marrows contain lots of water and insignificant sugar. My lazy jam (equal weights fruit & jam sugar microwaved till jammy - no water) uses fruit that's naturally around 10% sugar.
I'm not surprised you are having to boil, boil, boil.
Maybe add some Bramley pulp and some more lemon juice...

[Wowbagger]

We've just bottled it. I'm eating some on a crust - it's delicious! We ended up with 8 Bonne Maman jars full, so that's about 6lb. We put in a >6oz piece of ginger so that was about double the recommendation in the recipe.

[SteveC]

My mum used to make that when I was a nipper. Loved it.
She did rhubarb and ginger as well. That was good too.
However, most of what she made was crab apple jelly, which is all very well (and I really like it now) but it gets a bit boring if it's all you've got for months.

[trekker12]

Other uses - possible new topic

We have a very pleasant recipe for Courgette and herb soup which, served sprinkled with feta makes a nice lunch