Three Onion Jam Recipes

I've been doing a lot of canning since April, taking advantage of all the seasonal fruits and vegetables and filling my larder. After a large batch of fruit jam-making, I decided I wanted to balance things out by adding some savory jam, and I got the idea to experiment with onion jam. I found three recipes that looked really good, but I could not narrow it down to just one, so I decided to just make all three!

Here are the three onion jam recipes I made:

Onion & Rosemary Confiturra - from Serious Eats. Notes: This jam is a mix of sweet and sour and herb-y. It might seem like a lot of onions (10 cups of sliced onions!) but remember, they'll soften and shrink when cooked. This recipe filled four jars. Also, I mis-read the recipe. It calls for six sprigs of rosemary. I did not read the recipe all the way through and I stripped the leaves off the rosemary, only to discover that I was supposed to leave the leaves on the stems and fish them out at the end! So now my confiturra has chewy rosemary leaves in it. That's OK, I can spit them out, but I will keep this batch for myself and make another batch to give out as gifts. This one is really good - it filled the house with a wonderful scent and I kept snitching spoonfuls here and there while it was cooking. Oh - and they mean it when they say "keep stirring" in Step 5.

Balsamic Onion Jam - from Coconut & Lime. Notes: The sweetest of the three. This jam is good, but it is my least favorite of the three. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the onions didn't turn brown after cooking in the brown sugar for 30 minutes like the recipe says, and my batch is a lot paler in color than the photograph on the recipe. I feel like it's missing something, but it's still good. I got two jars out of this batch.

Sweet Onion Jam - from Food & Wine. Notes: The most savory of the three recipes. I think this one is my favorite of the three! I had to really restrain myself from eating any while it was cooking because this recipe is so small - it filled one jar. It contains red wine, red wine vinegar, and grenadine, and has a claret color. I'd definitely like to make more batches of this.

I couldn't find vidalia onions here in San Francisco, so I just used Walla Walla and Maui onions.

I can't wait to try these with some crusty bread and goat cheese!

(Image: Kathryn Hill)

Comments (15)

I too made the confiturra and thought it fantastic. Something even tastier? I better get started on the Sweet Onion Jam.

Note about the Coconut & Lime Balsamic Onion jam--I didn't and wouldn't use sweet onions in this jam. I made it with regular yellow onions. Sweet onions are just too sweet for this recipe.

I make onion confiture very often. I sometimes add raisins (either whole or chopped), sometimes a mixture of red wine and balsamic, butter not olive oil, and pepper as only spice.

I recommend to make a stock of the onion peel, boil as long as you're able to, reduce as much as you can, and add to the confiture. It adds an incredible richness to the confiture. The longer the confiture boils the better, in my experience.

Amazing on any cheese, and in salads with rocca and some crumbled blue cheese.

Fennel also makes a delicious savory jam. It's wonderful on a pizza with prosciutto and goat cheese.

Okay, since you mentioned the rosemary: I have never, ever put a sprig of rosemary in a dish and had it come out whole. The little leaves just fall right off the stem anyway and I can never fish them all out. Help?

note to Kakugori: you could wrap up the rosemary in some cheesecloth and then fish it out at the end. That would be messy, but it would contain the little leaves.

Does anyone know if it would be possible to preserve these jams for pantry storage - water bath? or pressure canning? I'd love to make these to send to faraway friends as holiday gifts

@indigoartisanry- I think that any of these will do fine. Just bring them to a boil and pour into jars and process in a water bath. I think I would process for 10-20 minutes. They all have enough acid that with these procedures they should be fine.

I cannot wait to try them. Thank you, Kathryn!

@indigoartisanry: Yeah, I was thinking either cheese cloth or maybe breaking it up and using a tea ball...but I know others don't have a problem with it, so I'm curious why.

I would do some heavy duty investigating about canning anything that contains even a miniscule amount of a fat such as butter or oil - especially if giving as gifts! If placed in sterile glass jars these will last for months in the refrigerator.

@pinchdash- many canning recipes call for oil or butter. I have used both with great results. I always add a little to my fruit preserves to cut down on foam. I also make marinated eggplant with oil & vinegar and have some that is still beautiful in my larder from last year. The key is heat, processing and/or acid. If it is a bad seal, etc you will know it within a few days, the lid will be bulging and the preserves will be cloudy. So there is very little chance of eating something bad without knowing or giving it to someone else with out knowing it.

@bfisk thank you for the input - very helpful!

I made the onion rosemary confittura and it was indeed superb. I have heard cautions about canning anything that contains fat, so I used freezer-canning jars and froze them. It also made me nervous that the source blog didn't mention canning directions.

EDIT- above comment. oops, it did mention canning, but not the time etc. I think I confused it with one of the other recipes. Any expert canners out there with an opinion?

about to get on my soap box- canning is not rocket science. Yes, there is science involved but once you learn the basics and you are willing to screw up occasionally you can preserve. The Ball canning bible talks about canning meat for crying out loud. In fact it is possible to preserve foods such as peppers, olives, sun dried tomatoes in hot oil. People have been preserving food for ages. We have become so accustomed to ready to eat, mass produced foods that we have lost our confidence when it comes to preserving.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/all_recipes/215.php?recipe=95&recipID=211&catID=

For canning: I would contact your local Master Food Preservers before canning these. Onions are really low acid and take more vinegar and sugar that is called for to make them safe. Pressure canning would be the way to go to ensure a safe product