I often roast figs, by pulling them open and spreading them apart. They are delicious -- but maybe even better is the juice that runs out onto the pan and carmelises.

I would like to get this flavor in a jam. I am thinking to chop up the figs fairly small.... and then what? Bake or roast them for a long time? Put them in the slow cooker?

Normally when I make fig jam I put them whole or halved in a pan, and simmer in their own juice for 2-3 hours, until they start to thicken. This doesn't make them carmelly at all. What do y'all think might work?

Carol

Dave

Dave

I suppose I cannot use the butter, if I am canning the result?

I love the idea of deglazing the pan with lemon juice. That is what I was missing in my roasting.

Before i saw your post, I put some in the baby crock pot and some in the toaster oven in a deep dish, so I will see how those go, too. But the frying pan seems more controllable.

1) 8 hours in the slowcooker. Have you ever tried to carmelize onions in the slowcooker? IME, they turn a creepily-even shade of brown, but do not taste carmelized. The figs turned that same even shade, and somehow developed a bitter aftertaste. Not burnt, just bitter. Might be edible with some intense other flavors, but I will probably compost them.

2) 90 minutes or 2 hours in the oven, 2 inches deep in the pan, about 400 degrees (I am forgetting the details). I had to cover them with tinfoil to prevent burning. They are tasty but not carmelized.

3) Modified Not-Martha method. I skipped all the fancy stuff, and just dumped the figs in the frying pan and sprinkled a good dose of sugar on them, and stirred/flipped them often. Then deglazed the pan with lemon juice.

This last method is the way to go! Thank you Dave!

I did the baked ones, first. They had lost all their juice when baking, but were still moist (just not loads of juice like raw figs have when you heat them). More juice came out as they 'fried' in the sugar, and the result was great.

The raw ones were a bit more tricky. Their juice took a while to come out, and meanwhile I had to be careful not to burn the sugar. Medium heat and frequent stirring worked fine for the first batch.

The second batch of raw figs, the sugar really got dark. I dumped in a bunch of lemon juice, and poured out the resulting liquid (into my holding pan for cooked figs). Still a problem, and I didn't want to add more lemon to my final result, so I put in a few tablespoons of water, and dumped again. That worked.

I now have a (holding) pan of delicious, and very lemony, carmelized fig jam-like glop. Yay! I will reheat and adjust seasonings, and maybe can it, later.

I say maybe because I started with abut 5 pounds of figs and ended up with what looks like about a half pint of jam. The figs lost a lot of water! Almost as much as when I carmelize them by roasting in a single cut-and-splayed-out layer. So, they may just go in the fridge :).

Anyway, I heartily recommend this to anyone who has way too many figs. Easy, and delicious. And compact ;).

I did some of each :).

And my freezer is full of beans, too! A very productive year for them.