The feijoa (pineapple guava) crops are increasing and I’m thinking about making jam or some other type of preserve. One thing that I’m struggling with is what to do with the skin. I know that some people eat the feijoa fruit with the skin but I really don’t like that, it ruins the flavor for me. I wonder, if I use the fruit for jam, should I remove the skin (time-consuming) or not (risking to ruin the taste of the product). I would appreciate if you can share your experience with the feijoa skin issue or provide time saving recipes for feijoa preserves.
What about cutting in half and scooping the flesh out with a spoon? Would add some prep time but faster than peeling and works well with ours
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This is exactly how I eat them fresh. Seems to be too much prep work for a jam.
I made an experiment with a small batch of jam without removing the skin from the fruit (just cut each fruit in half). It’s still in progress, will report on the result when it’s done.
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You might try the CRFG-Redwood group email list, someone usually brings (terrific) feijoa jam to the scion exchange.
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Yes, I tried that jam, it was good, but a bit too sweet for my taste. I’m pretty sure if I separate the pulp, I can make something similar.
Ok, so I made an experiment with feijoa jam without removing the skin off the fruit. I washed the fruit, cut each one in half (lengthway), put all the fruit in a big pan, and added sugar (about 1 lb of sugar per 3 lb of fruit). If you add sugar to soft fruit like apricots or peaches, they produce a lot of juice, but feijoa did not. Therefore, I added some water to avoid scorching and brought the mixture to boil on low heat, while stirring. I let it boil on very low heat for about 10 minutes, then turned heat off and let it cool down for a few hours. Then repeated the entire cycle three times, until the syrup became very dense. The resulting jam is very aromatic and not overly sweet. There is definitely some acidity in the flavor, but it’s not in your face. The fruit in the jam have a chewy texture, like candied fruit, so you would not put this jam on a toast. However, mixed with plain yogurt it was fantastic. No off flavor due to the skins is noticeable.
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Stan,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I might give this a try next time I have extra feijoa fruits. Not this year though after I gave it a hard pruning last year.
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I’m soaking my skins in gin, delicious with tonic and lime.
There is also a fermented recipe from New Zealand I’ve heard it’s common and delicious from the skins.
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