Cucumber Mint Jam

Cucumbers can be a very abundant garden harvest. We eat them fresh by the bushel and can up dozens of quart jars of pickles and yet there are still so very many. Cucumber mint jam is a fun, tasty, and unusual way to use a few up.

A Quick-Cook Jam

Use pectin in this recipe instead of cooking until gel point is reached. A long cooking to reach gel stage is going to cook the cucumbers to death and likely leave a watery final product. Keep it quick with the addition of commercial pectin.

Sugar & Vinegar

Cucumbers are a low-acid vegetable. The addition of sugar and vinegar is key to raise the acidity level for canning. As much as I prefer a low-sugar jam, this is not the place for it.

The vinegar helps with acidity and mellows out the sweetness giving the final jam a great sweet and savory combination.

Pickling Versus Slicing Cucumbers

Pickling cucumbers tend to have less water than the slicing/salad types. It is for this drier texture that I choose to go with pickling cucumbers in this jam. One could try using slicing cucumbers but the additional water might make the final product a little less firm than a traditional jam.

How to Use Cucumber Mint Jam

This isn’t a jam, that a person is likely to slather on a peanut butter sandwich.  It is a jam, however;  that would:

make an excellent sandwich with some goat cheese and / or turkey

go wonderfully with some cheese and crackers

be delightful mixed in with some plain yogurt for a sweet / savory and filling lunch or snack

mix up well in this vinaigrette recipe (just swap out the strawberry jam for the cucumber mint)

Before all those summer cucumbers fade away consider whipping up some jam with this easy and quick recipe.

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