Talk about a unique jam: made from unripe green tomatoes and flavored with lime and a hint of cinnamon, this Green Tomato Jam is a true old fashioned jam, meaning it achieves its jammy consistency with just sugar and time—no added pectin needed.
It may look like pickle relish, but this green tomato jam is a wonderfully bright and flavorful jam that toes the line between sweet and savory. Paired with a hint of cinnamon and a punch of tangy lime, it’s the perfect condiment for late-summer savoring and year-round snacking. Use it like you would applesauce or pepper jelly!
(Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the post to download the free printable labels!)
Our trip to Iceland this past spring (which I’m still planning to write about, I promise! I just need to find a few spare hours to edit the slew of photos still sitting on my camera card) was mostly centered around the natural beauty, and less so much about food (which is our normal mode of travel—following our stomachs, if you will, so this trip was quite a departure for us).
That said, we still managed to have a few particularly memorable meals, including a coveted lunch reservation at the tomato mecca known as Friðheimar. The restaurant itself, located just off the Golden Circle route, sits inside the main greenhouse, with tables nestled amongst the rows of towering tomato plants and golden glowing grow lights that warm the space from the inside out, with entire rooms full of nothing but basil nearby. It’s a magical place that’s always warm and bright, even on dark and rainy days. I highly recommend making a reservation if you’re planning to go to Iceland anytime soon.
They are famous for their tomato soup (served all-you-can-eat style with an abundance of homemade bread), but we found the dessert to be the most memorable dish of the meal: a frosty, chilled mini terracotta flower pot filled with tomato-flavored ice cream, and topped with a layer of two-toned tomato jam in red and green.
I regret not buying a jar of the green tomato jam to bring home with me (but you know, carry on bags and all that). I have a hunch that, based on the texture of it, Friðheimar’s version might use tomatoes that are green in color when they are completely ripe (like green zebra), but I wanted to try my hand at making a jam with unripe tomatoes which seemed like a much more versatile and practical recipe. You know, for that stressful stretch of days before the first frost hits when you have no choice but to pluck the last of the tomatoes from your garden, ripe or not.
I’ve made red tomato jam before (both plain and mixed fruit versions with both peaches and strawberries; you can find those recipes in my book!) and it’s always amusing to treat the tomato like the fruit it really is. But this was my first experience making jam from unripe green tomatoes. Usually when I find myself with green tomatoes on hand I make pickles or fry them, so this was a fun alternative.
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The flavor compliments include lime and cinnamon, which seem like a mismatched bunch, but somehow come together to create a wonderfully bright and flavorful jam that toes the line between sweet and savory. I used a small cinnamon stick, simmered with the tomatoes and sugar, to infuse the jam with a subtle undertone of cinnamon without tasting like a cinnamon broom. Paired with a punch of tangy lime, it’s the perfect condiment for late-summer savoring and year-round snacking.
While this recipe is written for water-based canning methods (preserved properly it will keep safely for up to a year), but you can also make it without canning: just store it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or the freezer for up to 6 months.
New to canning? Getting started is easier than you think! Be sure to check out my canning 101 post for easy to follow steps for making your first jam; I’ve also got a ton of beginner resources in my book, That’s My Jam!
Since tomatoes are lower in acid than many fruits, this is a recipe that requires added acid, in this case via lime juice (though you can also use lemon). Do not leave the acid out, it’s there for safety as well as for flavor.
This is an old-fashioned jam recipe, meaning there’s no added pectin. That does mean, however, that the cook time is longer—about 45 minutes in this case—but when you’re working with unripe tomatoes, they really need that extended simmer to soften into a luscious applesauce-like texture.
Even still, the texture of this jam is coarser than most fruit-based preserves, even with the full puree and the extended period of the stove to soften. That’s just the nature of unripe tomatoes. The result might look like pickle relish, but trust me, it’s got a unique flavor all its own.
With the hint of cinnamon and coarse, saucy texture, it most closely resembles an applesauce in both flavor and consistency. In fact, if I gave you a spoonful without knowing, you’d probably guess it was, in fact, applesauce. Might I suggest giving samples to friends and watching their shocked faces when you reveal that it is not, in fact, applesauce, but rather a sweet preserve made from green tomatoes!
How to use this unexpected jam?
Friðheimar served this jam, swirled with a complementary red version, atop their signature tomato ice cream (which we tried and loved) as well as their famous tomato cheesecake (which we did not try, something I seriously regret. Guess I’ll have to go back…)
But I feel like this jam is more suited for savory situations, not unlike pepper jelly (anywhere you’d use pepper jelly, I think you could use this jam instead). Also, applesauce (hello, perfect latke topping!) You could also think of it as more of a chutney, and used it as a replacement for chutneys in savory recipes as well.
I think it’d be lovely on a grilled cheese or a burger, and simply divine on a cheese plate. Or if you really want to blow someone’s mind, make yourself a fried green tomato sandwich and add a layer of this jam for a green-on-green culinary delight!
What ideas do you have to use this unique jam? Leave a comment below!
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Green tomatoes: To be clear, this recipe uses unripe green tomatoes (not green zebra or other tomato varieties that are green when fully ripe). Unripe tomatoes are firm and crisp; you should be able to peel them with a vegetable peeler without issue.
Look for firm, unblemished tomatoes with a uniform, saturated lime green color; tomatoes that are lighter, more like a pale celery green, will be extra extra crunchy, and should ideally be allowed to ripen slightly at room temperature. On the other hand, a bit of a yellow flush is ok, but if your tomatoes start to blush pink then they are too ripe for this recipe (ripe tomatoes have lower acidity so they may not be safe for water bath canning at the listed proportions).
Granulated sugar: old fashioned jams always have high ratios of sugar, the sugar both aiding in the preservation as well as the final gel or set of the jam in addition to providing sweetness (that sugar is working triple duty, basically!) This is not a low-sugar jam recipe and it cannot be made with sugar substitutes either, please don’t try it. This particular recipe has a 2:1 ratio of fruit to jam by weight, and you want to stick to that ratio. I don’t recommend reducing the sugar as the jam may not properly set, and it may take much longer to reach the target temperature (potentially burning the fruit).
Lime: The lime is a unique complement to the green tomato and cinnamon that both brightens and enhances. I’ve used fresh lime zest and juice in this recipe for both flavor and acidity (do not leave it out or reduce it if you plan to water bath process your jam). If you can’t find or don’t have limes, you can use bottled lime juice (omit the zest), or substitute with lemon juice/zest instead if you prefer.
Cinnamon stick: I used a small (2-3″) cinnnamon stick to gently infuse a hint of cinnamon flavor into the jam. Using ground cinnamon would make for a more prominent cinnamon flavor, so I wouldn’t recommend using more than 1/4 teaspoon or so (but feel free to adjust to taste). You can also omit the cinnamon entirely, or experiment with infusing other whole spices as desired.
Old-Fashioned Green Tomato Jam with Lime & Cinnamon
Green tomato jam with cinnamon and lime is a wonderfully bright and flavorful jam that toes the line between sweet and savory. This old-fashioned recipe is made with no added pectin!
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Fill a large stock pot or canning pot 2/3 full with water; place a rack of some sort in the bottom and place over medium-high heat. Wash/sterilize your jars and submerge in water bath as it heats. The pot should be just about boiling by the time the jam is ready to go. Keep jars in hot (not boiling) water until ready to use. This recipe can also be stored in the fridge or freezer if you don’t want to deal with canning it.
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Peel green tomatoes (they should be plenty firm to peel with a vegetable peeler). Cut in half, then remove a triangular wedge of the core. Coarsely chop remaining fruit, then transfer to a food processor and process until smooth (you can opt to leave it a bit chunkier if you prefer a more relish-like texture). You should have about 3 1/2 cups of tomato puree.
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Pour tomato puree into a large, heavy saucepan, along with sugar, lime juice and zest. Add salt and cinnamon stick and stir to evenly combine.
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Bring to a gentle boil over medium/medium-high heat, stirring occasionally so jam does not scald on the bottom, until jam reaches 217-220ºF (*see notes for altitude adjustments). This will likely take around 30-45 minutes depending on your stove and pan. The jam will be thick and crystalline in appearance, with an applesauce-like texture that falls off the spatula in thick (not watery) drops. The freezer gel test doesn’t really work for this recipe, so temperature is really the best indicator of doneness.
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Discard cinnamon stick. Ladle jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch of head space. Wipe jar rims and screw on lids. Process in boiling water for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Check seals. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used within 3 weeks.
- For folks at high altitude, adjust your target temperature down by 2ºF for every 1000 feet of elevation. For example if you are at 5,000 feet elevation, aim for 210ºF instead of 220ºF.
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Free Printable Labels
As always, the labels you see in this post are free to download and print yourself to make your jars gift-ready and extra-special.
The free PDF download includes three pages of labels, one with 2″ round labels (for smaller jar lids) and 2.5″ round labels for larger, wide-mouth lids for either Avery or OnlineLabels templates. Print onto full sheet sticker paper or precut round labels; you can also print onto cardstock, cut out and punch a hole to tie onto the jar lids like a gift tag.
Or, buy the customizable version and change the text, colors, and more! Choose from Canva (works with the Free account!), Photoshop or Illustrator formats.
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