I was talking to a friend the other day about carrot canning recipes. She’d just inherited (for lack of a better term) 10 pounds of carrots from a relative’s house. They’d been moved to a nursing home and had been in possession of a large stash of carrots at the time. Since she cans, everyone thought she should have the carrots. And thus she was searching about for carrot canning recipes since consuming 10 pounds of carrots forthwith seemed a bit challenging.

I suggested carrot cake jam! Because jam is delicious and who doesn’t like jam? She said, “We’re not jam people.” WHAT?! How is this even possible and did I know her AT ALL? Okay, sure, there’s butter, honey, molasses, even sausage gravy, but what’s a biscuit without some jam, too?

Are you jam people? Or non-jam people? I need to know. Well, not really, but it’s SO STRANGE.

If you are jam people, you’ll need this recipe. I didn’t have 10 pounds of carrots, but you don’t need that many for this recipe, and in discussing carrot recipes with her, and her non-jam-people-ness, I got so worked up I had to have some jam right away, and it had to involve carrots. It was like a carrot jam emergency, if you will.

How to make Carrot Cake Jam

1 1/2 cups finely shredded peeled carrots
12 ounce can of pears in juice/no sugar added
16 ounce can crushed pineapple in juice/no sugar added
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 package powdered pectin
6 cups sugar

Shred the carrots and dice the pears, reserving the juice from the can. Combine everything down to the pectin in a large pot except for the sugar. (Including the juice from the pears and pineapple.) Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add the sugar all at once. Bring to a rolling boil. Fill half-pint jars leaving an inch of headspace. Adjust lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath or steam canner for 10 minutes.

For me, this made 7 jars in the canner with about half a jar leftover to consume immediately. Since I was having a carrot jam emergency, you know.

By the way, my friend ended up canning glazed carrots, which sounds really delicious and if I had 10 pounds of carrots, I’d make some of that, too. What would you make if you had 10 pounds of carrots? Glazed carrots or carrot cake jam? Or both? Are you jam people?

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