Drunken Fig Jam from Christine

Christine's Backyard Produce: Mission Fig Preserves

My sister, Christine, sent us delicious homemade fig preserves for Christmas.  Her tree in her backyard in Sonoma produced a huge crop of figs this year, so she decided to make them into gifts.  

Christine and her tree

We were in California in September and were impressed by her backyard tree.  It still had LOTS of fruit on it.  I was calculating how much we could sell them for back East, where a tub is 6 for $3.99.  Mission figs are the dark ones, deep purple almost black in color with a nutty flavor.  

"The Mission fig is a popular variety of the edible fig. It was first introduced to what is now the United States in 1768 when Franciscan missionaries planted it in San Diego. It was also planted in the subsequent missions that the Franciscans established up the California coast."-- Wikipedia

She had already made  fig preserves, so she said that we should act surprised when we opened her Christmas package.  Surprise!

--- Barbara

Drunken Fig Jam

Servings: About six 1/2-pint jars

Ingredients:
2 lemons
4 pounds ripe fresh figs (preferably black), stemmed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 9 cups)
4 cups sugar
3/4 cup brandy or Cognac
1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Directions:
Using vegetable peeler, remove peel from lemons (yellow part only) in long strips. Cut peel into matchstick-size strips (about 3 tablespoons).

Combine lemon peel, figs, sugar, brandy, and 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt in heavy large deep saucepan; let stand at room temperature 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Bring fig mixture to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium; continue to boil until jam thickens and is reduced to 6 cups, stirring frequently and occasionally mashing mixture with potato masher to crush large fig pieces, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from heat.

Ladle mixture into 6 hot clean 1/2-pint glass canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch space at top of jars. Remove any air bubbles. Wipe jar threads and rims with clean damp cloth. Cover with hot lids; apply screw bands. Process jars in pot of boiling water 10 minutes. Cool jars completely. Store in cool dark place up to 1 year.

Source: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/drunken-fig-jam-350120