Rose hip jam is my number 1 favorite jam in the world. I discovered it in Romania, where it is pretty common and I rarely find it in any other country. Which is a pity, because the fruits can be found so easily and are packed of vitamin C. And the jam is madness (at least for my taste buds).
So I decided to make it myself. I went to my favorite Romanian youtouber for inspiration: Retele Mihaelei.
Here’s how I made it:
Rose hip jam
Picking time: 1 hour
Cleaning time: 40 min
Boiling time before blending: 1.5 hours
Sieving time: 30 min
Boiling time after blending: 2-2.5 hours
Difficulty: hard, but mainly time consuming
Ingredients
- 1 kg of rose hips
- 455 g of sugar
- 50 ml of lemon juice
- water
Directions
- First thing, you need rose hips. If you can’t find them in a local market, it is pretty easy to find your own bush and carefully pick them. The bushes are full of thorns, but with a bit of patience it is possible to pick them with no major injuries.
- Clean the rose hips one by one cutting any tail and the black heads.
- Wash them in few waters.
- In a big pot, add plenty of water and bring them to a boil.
- Boil for 1.5 hours or until the fruits can mash easily.
- Blend them with a hand blender, no need to remove the extra water. Do not worry for all the seeds and hairs, they will not blend and we will sieve them later on.
- At the end of the blending, your paste should be the consistency of a tomato soup. So pretty thin. If it is not, you need to add more cold water. If it is not thin enough, it will not go through the sieve.
- Now starts the sieving process: you need to be patience and sieve it carefully, so that you get rid of the seeds.
- Once the sieving process is done, put it back to a boil and add the sugar and lemon juice.
- Boil it on low fire – it is important, otherwise it will burn. If you have a pot with a thicker bottom, that is better.
- Boil your jam for 1.5-2.5 hours to get rid of the excess water added, until the consistency is that of a caramel sauce.
- Pour it in your jars immediately from the fire for sterilization purposes and turn the jars upside down.
- It is best consumed after it rests a few days. It is very creamy, sour-sweet and very flavorful.
