Tomato Jam

She's the girl ketchup tells you not to worry about.

Megan Wilson

and

Julia Sergison

Apr 25, 2025

QUICK! Fruit or veg??

Last week you got the Herky Jerk spice and hopefully you’ve made your own maple jerk bacon by now… because this week, we present you: tomato jam. You’re about to revolutionize the BLT (or as Megan prefers, the BKT… pictured above & available daily at Spud’s Coffee).

Before we launch into the cooking portion of our content days, we sit for a coffee and catch up (and Julia makes sure that Megan has eaten breakfast that day or else we add that to the pre-shoot necessities). As we talked about tomato day, the debate of is tomato a fruit or a vegetable inevitably came up.

Megan assured Julia that she won’t be caught in that argument. So obviously Julia poked the proverbial bear to which Megan explained that it’s a matter of food science vs. plant science (the woman is also a walking, talking, cooking encyclopedia). The tomato is typically treated as a vegetable in the culinary world, though technically it’s a fruit in the botany world since it’s the berry of a flowering plant.

In my writer’s fact-checking, I also found out it’s an argument that dates back as early as 1863. Back then, it escalated as far as the Supreme Court to *legally* declare it a vegetable for customs regulations. So since we’re a law abiding cooking blog and not a rouge gardening blog, we’re leaning to the vegetable world. Though we’d love to hear your heated opinions in the comments, of course.

So after all that, you’re here for a vegetable jam???? Yes, yes you are. 🍅

Tomato Jam

Since the blog is all about food you can make at home, choose any tomatoes that call your name at the grocery store, the produce stand, or the digital delivery service. Here are some of Megan’s favorites:

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Ingredients:

4 lbs tomatoes (we used a mix of heirloom, tomatoes on the vine, flavor bombs, sugar bombs, & lollibombs, but anything works!)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup garlic confit oil (regular olive oil works, too)
1-2 sprigs sage
1-2 sprigs rosemary
1-2 sprigs thyme
1-2 bay leaves (take or leave any of the herbs as you like)
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients in large sauce pot and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often so your jam doesn’t stick to the bottom as it thickens. Cook ~30 minutes until bubbly, thick, & jammy. Remove from heat, let cool, & store in airtight containers.