Colourful, sweet and juicy, the persimmon is a typical fruit of this time of year. It is excellent eaten fresh, to make desserts or homemade jams, compotes and preserves. Particularly in the latter case, its sugary taste goes perfectly with a touch of spice. Let's see together which spices you can use to prepare your homemade spice jam.

The most suitable spices for persimmon jam

There are several combinations you can experiment with, the most ‘popular’ spice being cinnamon, followed by the more delicate vanilla, but there are also more daring combinations. In fact, persimmon jam is also excellent with ginger and star anise, cardamom, cloves, or a pinch of black mustard for a very special taste (perfect with cheese).

How to prepare persimmon jam

Spices aside, to prepare your marmalade you will need at least one kg of ripe persimmons (otherwise the taste may be off-putting), 500 g cane sugar, the juice of one lemon (freshly squeezed), and the spices you have chosen to combine with your marmalade.

Wash and peel the persimmons, taking care to remove any seeds present, place the pulp obtained in a sufficiently large saucepan, add the sugar, lemon juice, mix well and leave to stand for about 30 minutes.

Now add the spices of your choice, stir again and place the saucepan with the mixture over the flame. The persimmon pulp should cook for about 45 minutes over moderate heat, stirring frequently (be careful not to let the jam stick to the bottom so that it does not burn, it is better to use a flame spreader to avoid excessive heat concentration in one place).

If you have used whole cinnamon and vanilla pods, remove them five minutes before turning off the flame, when the mixture starts to reach the right consistency.

The jam must be strictly stored in specially sterilised and dry glass jars, which must be left to stand upside down.

In order to obtain a more homogeneous and stringy consistency, we recommend that you puree the pulp with a blender, either before or during cooking.

To make the jam thicker, you can combine persimmons, plums or apples (quinces lend themselves particularly well).

To speed up preparation time and get the right consistency, you can also use a gelling agent if you are short on time.