This skillet jam is for all of you who love homemade jam, but find traditional canning a bit much – the sterilizing, the jars, the ratios, etc. It comes from an absolute gem of a new cookbook, Eating at Home by Trinity Mouzon Wofford, and it is as simple as it is flavorful. This easy-breezy approach to jam-making delivers intensely bright, not overly sweetened spreads – beautiful swiped across thick slabs of sourdough. If you’re a smoothie fan with a freezer stocked with berries, you’re already half way there.
One of the things I love most about skillet jams is that, because they’re meant to be eaten fresh – say, within a week, refrigerated – they don’t need to be shelf stable. As a result, they use just a fraction of the sugar required to preserve conventional jams. Let’s talk a bit more about the jam, and then I’ll share some favorite aspects of the cookbook.
Skillet Jam: Ingredients
- Fruit: You can use fresh or frozen fruit here. I’ve found that using frozen berries is a great way to use up any fruit accumulated in my freezer.
- Lemon: I like to use a Y-peeler to remove the lemon rind, then slice it thinly with a sharp knife rather than using a microplane. The zest ends up with more structure, so it doesn’t disappear as the jam cooks.
- Sugar: granulated. You rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingertips.
- Salt: To balance out the sweetness a bit.
Skillet Jam: Inspiration
I came across this skillet jam in Eating at Home. This is a complete charmer of a cookbook – one that I bought at the neighborhood bookstore a few blocks from our house. I stop in often to see what’s new, and while I don’t always leave with something, this one felt like it needed to come home with me. 
The full title is Eating at Home: The Nourishing Practice of Everyday Cooking. A quick flip through – the food looked gorgeous, the recipes very approachable, and the vibe wholesome and encouraging. Trinity Mouzon Wofford writes about cooking on a shoestring budget for a family of four, noting, “…I quickly noticed our dollars went furthest at the local farmers market. As the seasons passed, I learned to look past the ephemeral strawberries to the hardworking root vegetables and greens that would form the foundations of our meals. I discovered that shiitake and oyster mushrooms could sub in for the richness of meat at a fraction of the cost.” It’s the kind of book I can imagine giving as a gift for a wide range of people. It encourages the practice and celebration of simple home-cooked meals, and the importance of slowing down in a hectic, scary world to make space for good, intentional meals.
The book design is what initially caught my attention – the brown and yellow palette, woodblock illustrations, and bright lime endpapers. It uses Falcon Nuvo and Broadsheet fonts, with illustrations by Issey Kobori, Trinity’s husband. Design by Emma Campion, photos by Dane Tashima. The whole package comes together beautifully.
More Trinity:
- trinitymouzon.com
So, keep your eyes peeled for Eating at Home, be sure to flip through it if you get a chance. And in the meantime, definitely make a round of this skillet jam. We’ve been enjoying ours all week, I made ours with (frozen) raspberries and strawberries and it is perfect on sesame sourdough.
Variations
- Blueberry Skillet Jam: I just made a version of this using about 2/3 wild blueberries (frozen), 1/3 raspberries (frozen), and 6-7 strawberries (frozen). I also added a couple pinches of freshly ground cardamom, and finished the jam with 2 teaspoons of vanilla paste. SO GOOD!
More Berry Recipes
- Summer Berry Crisp
- Berry Pie
- Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk
- Buttermilk Berry Muffins
- Whole Wheat Blackberry Ricotta Scones
- Strawberry Scones
- all berry recipes
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