In typical fashion, I found about 6 recipes for the product, found similarities, differences, standardized the recipe to an easily divided amount that I might want to make, and then I created my own take on the idea. The jam turned out to have a very pleasant sweet/sour flavor that I would also not call savory, but would very strongly complement a savory dish or roast.
So, here's the onion jam recipe, if you're like me, gather all the stuff, take a picture of it, and roll from there.
(all of my ingredients, gathered for your entertainment)
7# red or white onions, chopped
1/4c olive oil
(Start those in a large, shallow pan, I had to cook the onions in stages because they just wouldn't all fit into my biggest pan. A pot would have cooked and reduced too slowly)
(honestly, I think all the onions look kinda like bait, really)
As my onions cooked merrily down on low heat, (I kept the cover on so they wouldn't burn) I peeled my:
5 head of garlic
I then measured and added:
1 1/4c red wine vinegar
1 1/4c apple cider vinegar
3/4c dry white wine
2/3c honey
1/2c balsamic vinegar
1/2c brandy
all of that got stirred in, and then I added:
1 package (12 sprigs) rosemary
I let it all cook about 20 minutes, and then I threw my chopped garlic in:
(by the way, I was officially not fucking around... I used the big Cuisinart for the onions and the little one for the garlic. We're canning specifically so we don't cry.)
At this juncture, I stirred the garlic in and added:
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
All this fun stuff had to cook down for a while, I allowed myself the afternoon, but really, it only took about 45 minutes, during which I was able to clean up my workspace (all 3' of it), the dishes, and hunt down my 1/2pint jars, lids and the canner of the gods. Give the jam a good stir now and again.
When it's quite a bit reduced, add:
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
And stir it in real good.
By this time, I'm watching the current episode of Grimm on the computer while it cooked down some more. I'd pause the show to go stir here and there, and it was just beginning to caramelize when I decided it was time to put it into jars, but the show wasn't over, so I let it cook for about 15 more minutes, coming in to stir here and there.
Ok, show over, putting into jars time. I put it into 1/2 pint jars and came up with 11 half pints of onion jam.
The tidy results of the afternoon's work
I pressure canned them for 15 minutes at 10# pressure. I'm certain I could've just water bath canned them, but I like the thought of pressure canning. There's likely enough acid and sugar in them to make them safe, but that there's oil in the recipe, there's garlic in the recipe, and onions are not an acid food, I'd rather pressure can them.
S.D. will be home soon, and we're going to try this out together with LvG and CvG, but when I was tasting it as I went along, it was pretty darned good. I know S.D. was thinking savory, like a very condensed French onion soup, but it just didn't roll that way. I may contemplate a variation on this, but for now, this is good. And comforting.
Surviving the ZA can also taste good, we can be the gourmet survivors.
