Onion Jam

Onion Jam!

A few years ago, I went to a BBQ at my sister’s house. Friends of hers brought the most amazing potato salad I have ever had. It was new potatoes mixed with an onion jam. These friends own a salad business that supplies to many supermarkets in the North Island but sadly, due to issues with transport companies, they don’t sell to the South Island.

I tried a little Google Fu to see if I could find a similar recipe online.

I found heaps of recipes for Onion Jam, unfortunately, they all seem to be Caramelised Onion Jam. I’m fairly certain that the onion jam in this potato salad wasn’t caramelised and brown the way all of these came out. I spoke to my parents who were also at this bbq and they remembered it being like a chutney. Most of the recipes also contained a number of ingredients that I would need to buy and that kind of defeats the purpose.

I have a few philosophies when it comes to preserving my excess. I won’t add any interesting chemicals that I’m not sure exactly what they are - citric acid is fine, acetic acid is vinegar and I’ll buy yeast for making wines, but beyond that, usually no, I’m trying to make it all simple and natural. If I have to go and buy a number of exotic things to make it work, things that I wouldn’t normally have in my pantry, then it defeats the frugal nature of preserving my excess so I won’t do that either.

So, being me, I found a simple recipe and decided to try making it without fully caramelising the onions. I used this recipe with a few minor alterations. I diced the onions and didn’t caramelise them.

No liquid to set.

The thing that struck me as it was nearing completion is how little liquid there is compared to the onions, making it difficult to tell when it was thick. There is barely a coating on the bottom of the pan. My other concern is how will this cover the onions in the jar and preserve them? Was this recipe meant to be used immediately perhaps? A quick check back at the original recipe showed that it made no mention of bottling it, storing it or anything much beyond serve with barbecue steak or beef sausages.

Much better! After adding extra sugar, vinegar and water.

So I doubled the sugar, vinegar and water. It looked better, but I was thinking about the ratio of sugar to liquid - is that enough to make it set? I checked through chutney recipes and found that usually, the sugar either equals or is close to the weight of the fruit. So I added another 1/2 c of brown sugar. That looked much better. 5 - 10 mins later, I have a jar of onion jam.

If you don’t have a jam funnel, don’t stress and don’t make a mess - cut the top off a plastic milk bottle (leaving the handle attached). This makes a great jam funnel, the handle makes it easier to manage and you can throw it in the recycling afterwards and make a new one next time.

Jam funnel from a milk bottle.

My final recipe turned out to be:

600g onions, diced

2 sprigs of thyme

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3/4 C brown sugar

1 C water

Heat oil in a saucepan, add onion and thyme. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until golden. Add sugar, cook, stirring for 3 mins. Add vinegar and water. Bring to the boil then reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered until thick.

It’s sweet, but not overly so. The bite of the vinegar is still noticeable.  This recipe made one 300ml jar.


For an update on this - see here.