Hi Folks,
Our pineapple guava has been giving us a lot of fruit this month, so I went looking for things to do with them other than eat fresh. So I made up some jam and it is pretty wonderful.
I adapted a couple of references I found on the internet.
Adjust the ingredients up or down according to how much pulp you have. A lot of references say 'strain' but I wanted the bits in it.
Harvesting the fruit is easy - if it is on the ground it is ripe! We noticed in years gone by that pulling one off the tree resulted in under-ripe 'green persimmon' type taste - ugh.
Cut in half and use spoon to scoop out - you may wish to use acidulated water to keep the browning at a minimum. I also decided next time to use a processor to cut the pulp up before cooking, but I did use my immersion blender after it was cooked and before canning and that worked nicely.
Also some darkening of the fruit because of seeds is acceptable to us - it can be a choice.
Pineapple Guava Jam
2 cups of pulp
1 1/2 cup of sugar (personally I use organic can sugar)
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
If you decide to use acidulated water while prepping the pulp, drain well. No water is needed as the fruit and sugar produce quite a bit of liquid.
Place all in a sauce pan with a cover. Bring up to boil, then lower to low simmer, stirring occasionally for 35 minutes.
Water bath process for 15 minutes.
I got 2 1/2 cups out of this recipe.
Enjoy!
Replies
guavas have this refreshing factor/medicinal effect when eaten fresh, which disappears when processed.
however, those strips of guava fruit rolls they sell in mexican grocery stores are just as addictive!
Rafael I've made some fruit leathers in the past. Unfortunately I think the PGs timing is off for that (need about 85+ for my sun drying preference :-)
fruit leathers, is that what it's called? love that stuff! Guava jerky sure sounds healthier than the meat variety..
just realized, the added benefit of processing guavas is that omega-3's from seeds are made more available.
food processors/blenders grind it up, which would be difficult to do with bare teeth when eating fresh guavas. When eating fresh, i normally just swallow the seeds whole, else risk having a chipped molar.
Rafael, I think the "real" guava may be quite a bit different. In fact I'm not sure I've ever had a real guava. Pineapple version is a species related to the guava, but not brother sister, more like cousins :-)
i have had tasted both and other cousins, especially varieties within the same species(mostly psidium's). Although distant cousins, they all have this minty-eucalypt signature which refreshes.
so you're right, i was pertaining to the psidium guavas, which are better tasting, if not for the bigger and harder seeds.Pineapple guavas have smaller seeds, and blindly assumed it too has a considrable amount of omega 3's, since they both originated in central/south america, and may even cross-pollinate one another.
taste-wise, i'd say pineapple guava would make awesome fruit leathers as well, and quite likely already be included in the slurry being used in central and south america.
btw, the real guavas are the ones you'd see being sold most commonly in hispanic grocery stores. Am sure you will have plenty of similar stores in az. They range in size from cherry-sized ones, to medium oval ones, to large green ones the size of mike tyson's fist. While varying in size, color, and shape, they are quite likely to be fruits of the psidium genus.
have never seen pineapple guavas being sold anywhere. Could be due to its narrow window of edibility. Most psidium guavas could be eaten semi-ripe, to fully-ripe, and the inner pulp does not change much in appearance even when already soft and mushy, whereas pineapple guavas must be fully-ripe to be palatable, and by then its insides already turned brownish and visually unappealing.
Hi Rafael,
We have several ethnic markets in the Valley here, so most likely I will run across a guava at some point. The PGs do indeed have a tendency to turn darker (it is the seeds and immediate flesh surrounding them when ripe). When I made the jam I tossed some too dark and kept some just a bit dark. :-)
love it!
as for the real guavas, i still see them being sold in hispanic grocers, at least here in vegas.
currently the medium-sized oval/pear-shaped ones are the only variety i see available. The smaller and bigger varieties are usually available in late spring.
can you post a picture of your guavas and tree?
1. Aren't there different types of pineapple guava and some a better than others to eat out of hand?
2. I have one that froze to a stick in our big frost and now it's pretty large...but not fruiting...yet. I want to live vicariously.
It also never occurred to me that Guava's would need to be eaten any other way than fresh.
Hi Brian,
I had not thought of doing anything with the fruit other than eating fresh but we had a bunch this year and I did not want to let them go to waste.
I'm not sure about varieties of pineapple guava - there are different varieties of guava - related species with names like strawberry guava and apple guava and just guava.
My picture here is a composite of the tree in bloom in May (the flower petals are sweet as candy) and the harvested fruit in November - these were taken a few years ago. For a long time we thought the flowers were a better eating option than the fruit - until we learned the fruit we were picking from the tree was simply not ripe enough. E.g. harvesting fallen fruit.
This looks beautiful! I am looking forward to add a couple of Pineapple Guava bushes to my backyard garden once the area is ready! Thank you so much for sharing!
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