Prickly Pear recipes?

**your_comforting_company** · 06-20-2011, 08:56 PM

Anyone have recipes for jam from prickly pear? I found one plant with ripe fruits today on the way home for work so I came home, got my tongs and bucket, and went back (it was only about two miles away), and got about two quarts of fruit, hopefully enough to make a pint or two of jam..

The kicker is that my Ball recipe book only has a marmalade recipe and I'd really like to make jam instead. This will most likely be a project for tomorrow evening or Wednesday as it's supposed to rain. I'm gonna do a little searching for a recipe, just thought someone here might already have a recipe to share that they've tried.

Thanks in advance!

**crashdive123** · 06-20-2011, 09:08 PM

I'll bet Grrlscout does. Although not revealed in this thread, she does mention it. http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...t=prickly+pear

**Rick** · 06-20-2011, 09:13 PM

I sure wish I would have tried this when I had the danged plants. We had tons of fruit. Anyway, here's one I found for you.

http://mostlyphotos.wordpress.com/20...ckly-pear-jam/

This is one of my favorite canning sites. Just scroll to the bottom.

http://www.pickyourown.org/jamrecipes.htm

**your_comforting_company** · 06-20-2011, 10:14 PM

Thanks crash and rick. And I'm gonna hit grrlscout up for more info too.

On another unrelated note, The lady whom I'm roofing for today has PILES of "Queen Anne's Lace" growing. It was funny.. I said, "So do you eat those carrots?"
"What carrots?"
"Those plants with the seed bunches on top that look like bird nests"
"She said, Oh, no, that's not carrots! That's Queen Anne's Lace"
"That's right, same thing!"
So I showed her in 3 of my books and she told me to get all the seeds I wanted, just to "Drop a few so I'll have some more next year"

There are so many stands of prickly pear growing here that there is no need to cultivate it. I must ride by 10 stands every day in any given direction. Keeping an eye out but I'd like to try some jam before I load the truck up with fruits lol. I noticed the irony that every stand of the prickly things are surrounded by more prickly things, like brambles and greenbriers.. The universe has a sense of humor.

**shiftyer1** · 06-20-2011, 11:01 PM

I don't know about jam but alot of people here eat the plant with eggs for breakfast, they even sell it at the grocery store. They call it nopales (sp.)

**grrlscout** · 06-21-2011, 03:37 PM

Usually folks make jelly from them, rather than jam. I think this is because the seeds are so hard to separate from the flesh. It's easier just to juice them, add sugar and pectin, and make jelly.

I've tried a couple of time to make it, but always end up with syrup. In retrospect, I think it was because I was trying to make HUGE batches. Something about that keeps the pectin from working.

Anyway, I'll see if I can't dig up a recipe.

shifty - I believe ycc is referring to the fruits, rather than the paddles. Both are edible, just better in different contexts.

**grrlscout** · 06-21-2011, 03:44 PM

This looks a lot like the recipe I used:

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The spine removal method described above is also the one I used. In the past, trying to preserve the flesh, I cut them all off individually. It was a royal pain, and I still couldn't effectively de-seed them. So I ended up using the boil and mash method anyway.

The alternative is to hold them over an open flame for a few seconds, and burn them off. Though I have never tried this myself.

**your_comforting_company** · 06-21-2011, 10:46 PM

Awesome! Thanks very much. I hope to have time later in the week to work them over into jelly. I figured some window screen would help get the seeds out.. just push the fruit through and the seeds should stay, but I may try this batch as just jelly, till I get some usable product, and go from there toward jam.
Pics to come and reports on how it went.
Thanks again!!

**your_comforting_company** · 06-25-2011, 08:09 AM

Torch scorching works well. Not a single thorn!
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And makes them super easy to peel.
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simmer to get the juices out.
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Strain
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mix ingredients as according to recipe above
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Gelled perfectly!
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And it tastes wonderful!
Thanks grrlscout!

The recipe above only made four half-pints, tho

**grrlscout** · 06-27-2011, 12:35 PM

Looks good! did it set well?

And it looks as if the image owner has removed the recipe. D'oh!

**canid** · 06-27-2011, 01:13 PM

not jam, but try this some time:

prickly pear sauce:
Puree two medium tomatoes, three large, hot chilies (the over-riper the better), a teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons sugar then simmer for 15 min to reduce a little.
Remove from heat and allow to cool. Next, dress two large prickly pear fruit and place these and the sauce base in the blender. Again puree and pour through a strainer, spooning the bottom until the solids remaining are mostly dry, leaving predominately the seeds and a small amount of fibers. Stir in several tablespoons of orange juice and chill.

**your_comforting_company** · 06-28-2011, 05:35 AM

Drat! That was a dandy recipe too!! Yes'm it appears to have set perfectly. When I turn the jar upside-down it does not move. Finished up a jar of plum jelly yesterday, so today I'm likely to open a jar of tuna jelly to try on a peanut-butter sandwich. Will report back!

canid, this sounds like something that would be good as a salad dressing, or perhaps on pancakes or even as a marinade for meat. I'm seeing more tunas getting close to ripe, so I'll try that recipe soon!

If I'm not mistaken the recipe that was removed above, was 2-1/2 cups of juice, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 box pectin, 3-1/2 cups sugar.
I used a torch to burn off the spines, peeled the fruits, mashed, simmered in 1/2 cup water (the recipe said not to add water) for 10 minutes, poured off juice. Add ingredients, bring to boil, stirring constantly, and boil for 3 more minutes, then pour into hot jars. Adjust bands and lids and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Made four 1/2 pints.

**grrlscout** · 08-16-2011, 11:27 AM

They are ripe now!

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**your_comforting_company** · 08-23-2011, 06:12 AM

Reminds me that I forgot to report on the jelly.. WOW!! that stuff is good. I'm almost out of tuna jelly and still not finding a great deal of ripe ones in my area yet.