Canning a Cinnamon-Persimmon Sauce

When Justin and Andria recently worked on an article about canning, they made a peach-coriander chutney that honestly was just about the best thing ever as a Christmas gift. Because of that memory, I myself have been wanting to learn how to can for a while now, and with the persimmon overload that we wrote about here last week, it was the perfect time to see how it's done. So I enlisted the help of my mom, who basically knows how to do anything and everything and acts like nothing is ever a big deal. We chose some squat, modern-looking Ball jars with silver lids, and I spent a few days gathering up ripe persimmons from the bench outside and peeling and chopping up the fruit every night. We adapted a plum jam recipe from the pectin insert since we figured plums and persimmons have about the same texture. Here is how we did it:

Persimmon Sauce

First, run all jars and lids through the dishwasher. Set them in a pan of hot tap water in the sink. You have to keep everything sterile in order to do this right. 

Boil 4 cups of chopped and slightly mashed persimmons. Add 2 cups of raw, organic sugar. Stir it up. Squeeze in one pack of pectin. Keep stirring. Add 1 tbsp. or so of cinnamon and the juice of one lemon. The persimmon sauce should be at a boil; ladle it into a jar, and wipe off any that gets on the mouth of the jar with a paper towel that's been dipped in hot water. Screw on the seal and the lid tightly and put aside to cool. It made 8 jars of sauce with a little left over for tasting. 

(Funny thing is, we were really trying to make jam, but this turned out to be a smooth, thick sauce that is perfect with banana pancakes or french toast. J. said earlier that he is sick of persimmons, but you know, this sauce is so good that it made me like them even more. I always want to make things that people request, so maybe this will end up being a go-to, memory-making Christmas gift of my own each year.)