Rhubarb and orange jam is a old fashioned recipe which appears in Mrs Beeton's famous cook book. It's a good alternative to Rhubarb and Ginger Jam and can be made with young or old rhubarb.

This time of year we're struggling to keep up with the rhubarb, and it's a great chance to stock up on jams and pickles early in the season. Rhubarb always seems to produce a faultless range of preserves, there's a selection of recipes here.

  See here for the rhubarb and orange jam recipe.

Recipe Costs

£9.33 1.5kg trimmed rhubarb (equivalent cost, mine was free)
£0.50 50g fresh root ginger
£0.60 pared rind and juice of 2 oranges
£0.70 2 lemons
£0.00 1.15 litres water
£1.63 1.75kg sugar
£0.07 15g butter
£12.83 Total (£3.50 without buying the rhubarb)
£4.27 per kg of jam (£1.16 without buying the rhubarb - almost a tenth of the price of buying online)

The rhubarb is chopped up, it'll break down in the cooking, but best to start off with small chunks, as always use a sharp knife.

It's easier to pare the rind off the oranges before squeezing the juice from them, use a small sharp knife or a vegetable peeler. Avoid as much of the bitter white pith as possible.

Slice finely, this will remain in the finished jam, so cut as fine as you're happy to eat.

The ginger is finely chopped as well, I left it out as we have stocks of rhubarb and ginger jam already.
Squeeze the juice from the lemons and oranges, it helps to put them in the microwave for 30 seconds before doing this.

All the ingredients except a third of the rhubarb, the sugar and butter are added to a preserving pan, tip the juice through a sieve to remove any stray pips and pith.

The lemon skins are roughly chopped and tied up in muslin, this allows the all important pectin to be extracted during the cooking. Rhubarb only has a low level of pectin, so needs some extra to set well.

After an hours simmering the rhubarb has broken down and reduced by about a half. The rest of the rhubarb is added now, and simmered for ten more minutes, this provides a variety of texture in the finished jam, if a smoother jam is preferred then add all the rhubarb at the beginning.
Sugar is added and stirred well until it is all dissolved.

Bring the jam to a boil and boil hard until it reaches setting point, this could take up to an hour.
Before potting add the butter and stir in well, this should reduce the foam caused by the jam bubbling.

Pot the jam in sterilised jars, it's always easier and cleaner using a jam funnel.

Cover the jam with discs of waxed paper, and put on lids when cool.

Recipe Timings

30 minutes Preparation
1.5 hours Simmering
45 minutes Boiling
15 minutes Bottling

Taste Test

This is a great breakfast jam, quite sharp and slightly reminiscent of marmalade