Take advantage of mango season with this delicious homemade mango jam recipe. Made with less sugar than anything you can find at the grocery store, this easy jam a great way to enjoy the flavours of the tropics even if a trip to the sun and sand isn’t in the winter budget this year.
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Every year around this time, I start craving all things tropical: Tropical fresh fruits, piña coladas, Hawaiian-style barbecues, reggae music, an all-inclusive beach vacation in an exotic locale…
By late February/early March, I’ve pretty much had enough of winter and the thought of enjoying a tropical fruit platter and a cold adult beverage on a sunny beach in *insert tropical vacation destination here* seems to be just about all I can think of.
Since jetting off to Mexico isn’t usually in our budget, I have to find other more affordable ways to satisfy my desire to escape late winter and “trick” myself into thinking I’m laying poolside somewhere warm and sunny.
Bottling the flavours of a tropical vacation
Luckily, this is the time of year when many fresh fruits are in season in their respective tropical locales, and that means that they’re generally much cheaper to buy from the grocery store.
Mangoes are one such tropical fruit that are in season this time of year, and while I love, love, LOVE fresh mangoes, this year I thought I would take advantage of the low prices and stock up on enough ripe mangoes to preserve and enjoy all year long!
I ended up purchasing two flats of fresh mangoes containing about 9 mangoes each for about $10 a flat (so $20 all in). We ate a few of them fresh, and I was left with 14 to preserve.
At first I considered slicing them up and preserving them in liquid, much the same way as I preserve peach slices in liquid. But unfortunately I got busy with life and let them sit for a wee bit too long and many of them started to go a bit soft.
So instead I decided to turn them into mango jam!
The problem with traditional jam recipes…
I turned to my canning bible (the Ball Complete Book of Home Food Preservation) and found. recipe for mango raspberry jam that I figured I could easily convert to a mango-only jam recipe. The only problem was that it called for 3 cups of mangoes and 5½ cups of sugar!!!
This insane amount of sugar is the biggest problem with most standard homemade jams, and while I love a good classic, sugary batch of strawberry jam as much as the next gal, I just can’t justify adding that much extra sugar to anything I make/eat/serve my family anymore.
Plus, mangoes are really sweet just as they are (especially the overripe ones), so I feared adding that amount of sugar would make the mango jam almost sickeningly sweet.
However, I know that many jam recipes call for a lot of sugar in order for them to gel correctly, and I definitely wanted to end up with a nice, thick jam in the end.
After a bit of back and forth between different recipes, I found a low-sugar option that called for Pomona’s pectin: a low-sugar alternative that uses a combination of pectin and calcium water which helps thicken homemade jams and jellies without the addition of absurd amounts of extra sugar.
I’ve heard about Pomona’s pectin before, but had never actually tried in any of my own recipes, mostly because I just wanted to get really good at regular jam making and canning before I started playing around with low-sugar alternatives.
But now that I have a few years of canning and jam-making experience under my belt, and DOZENS of jars of sugary jam lining my pantry shelves, I decided there was no better time than now to take the leap and dive into the world of low-sugar jam making!
Making jam with Pomona’s pectin
As it turns out, using Pomona’s wasn’t any more difficult than using regular pectin. Plus, it not only allowed me to use a fraction of the amount of sugar (I used 3 cups of sugar to 12 cups pieces of mangoes), it also gave me a really nice, thick gel with no issue at all.
Each box comes with a package of pectin and a small pack of calcium powder, which you mix with a little water and add to your batch of jam to thicken it up.
Pomona’s pectin is also pure pectin, unlike other brands which are often mixed with dextrose. So this pectin is extra potent and needs to be mixed with the sugar before being added to the fruit mixture otherwise it will clump.
(I learned this the hard way since I had already added the sugar before reading that part of the directions. I was, however, able to use my hand blender to blend it up and break up any clumps, so crisis averted!)
Pomona’s has their own low-sugar mango jam recipe which calls for ½ cup of bottled lemon juice or lime juice per 4 cups of mangoes. I decided to use lime juice since it reminds me of the tropics and I thought the flavours would compliment each other well. I even upped the lime flavour by adding in the grated zest and juice of three fresh limes.
The addition of lime juice also helps the jam achieve a nice, thick gel due to the high pectin content in citrus fruits. Also, it ensures a safe final product since mangoes are actually a low-acid fruit, which means they require the addition of lemon juice or lime juice to ensure they can be canned safely. (See Botulism & Home Canning: What You Need to Know to Stay Safe.)
In the end this low-sugar mango jam turned out really nice and really showcased the flavours of the fresh mangoes and limes without being overly sweet.
Ways to enjoy low-sugar mango jam
- On top of toast
- Spread on crackers and cheese
- Use as a condiment on a burger (for something a little different!)
- Mix it in with some yogurt
- Enjoy it straight out of the jar with a spoon!
I found my batch a bit thick to spoon over ice cream, although according to Pomona’s, you can add less of the pectin and calcium water for a softer spread if you prefer.
Low-sugar mango jam recipe
To make this low-sugar mango jam recipe, start by preparing your mangoes. Peel and dice them and measure out 12 cups.
*Although the original Pomona’s recipe called for just 4 cups of mashed fruit, I happened to have just enough mangoes on hand to get exactly 12 cups of peeled and diced mangoes. This gave me roughly 8 cups worth of mashed fruit in the end once I cooked it down. So I doubled the amount of pectin and calcium water. I ended up getting 8 half-pints (8oz jars) in the end, which was a good amount.
You could measure out roughly 6 cups of peeled, diced mangoes to yield 4 cups of mashed fruit instead, but then you will only get about 4 half-pints. This is fine if you only have enough to do a small batch, but I figure if you’re going to do the work anyway, you may as well do a larger batch and get more jars from one canning session.
After you’ve prepared your mangoes and measured out 12 cups, add them to a stainless steel pot along with 1½ cups of bottled lime juice plus the zest and juice from three fresh limes and stir to combine.
Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
Boil for about 20-25 minutes, mashing the mangoes as you go. Alternatively, you can use a hand blender to blend into a smooth jam.
Meanwhile, mix ½ teaspoon of the calcium powder with ½ cup of water in a Mason jar or other jar with a lid and shake well to combine.
Add the ½ cup of calcium water to the fruit mixture and stir well to combine.
Next, mix 6 teaspoons of the pectin with 3 cups of sugar. Bring the mango fruit to a full boil and then add the sugar/pectin mixture and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes until it’s completely dissolved.
Remove pot from heat. At this point your jam should be starting to gel quite nicely. If you’re not sure about the gel, you can do a gel test by sticking a spoon in a glass of ice water and then quickly drying it off and touching the bottom of the spoon to the jam. If the jam sticks to the spoon and/or slides off in sheets (rather than dripping off), then you’ve got a good gel and you’re ready to can it up!
How to can mango jam
To can your jam, use a canning scoop and a canning funnel to scoop the hot jam into sterilized jars. Leave ¼-inch headspace at the top of the jar.
Use a knife to skim around the inside of the jar to release any trapped air bubbles. Adjust headspace if necessary.
Wipe rims and place lids on top of jars. Screw down bands and then place in a hot water bath. Bring to a full rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. (Add an extra one minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level if you live at a high altitude).
Then turn heat off, take lid off the canner and leave jars in canner for an extra 5 minutes.
Remove jars from canner and let cool completely on a tea towel on your countertop.
Store in your pantry out of direct sunlight and enjoy whenever you’re in the mood for a little tropical fruit (or when you’re dying for a beach vacation but your bank account says “just eat the jam, Karen.”)
Low-Sugar Mango Jam Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 cups mangoes, peeled and diced
- 1½ cups of bottled lime juice, plus the zest and juice from three fresh limes
- ½ tsp. calcium powder
- ½ cup water
- 6 tsp. Pomona's pectin
- 3 cups sugar
Instructions
- Prepare your mangoes by peeling and dicing. Measure out 12 cups.
- Add mangoes to a stainless steel pot. Add lime juices and zest and stir to combine.
- Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
- Boil 20-25 minutes, mashing the mangoes as you go. Alternatively, you can use a hand blender to blend up the jam into a smooth consistency.
- Meanwhile, mix ½ teaspoon of the calcium powder with ½ cup of water in a Mason jar or other jar with a lid and shake well to combine.
- Add the ½ cup of calcium water to the fruit mixture and stir well to combine.
- Mix 6 teaspoons of Pomona's pectin with 3 cups of sugar. Bring the mango fruit to a full boil and then add the sugar/pectin mixture and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes until completely dissolved.
- Remove pot from heat. At this point your jam should be starting to gel quite nicely. If you’re not sure about the gel, you can do a gel test by sticking a spoon in a glass of ice water and then quickly drying it off and touching the bottom of the spoon to the jam. If the jam sticks to the spoon and/or slides off in sheets (rather than dripping off), then you’ve got a good gel and you’re ready to can it up!
- Scoop the hot jam into sterilized jars. Leave ¼-inch headspace at the top of the jar. Use a knife to skim around the inside of the jar to release any trapped air bubbles. Adjust headspace if necessary. Wipe rims and place lids on top of jars. Screw down bands and then place in a hot water bath. Bring to a full rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. (Add an extra one minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level if you live at a high altitude).
- Then turn heat off, take lid off the canner and leave jars in the canner for an extra 5 minutes. Remove jars from canner and let cool completely on a tea towel on your countertop. Store in your pantry out of direct sunlight.
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My searches re mango on Pomona’s site have never found mango on its own – only with passion fruit which a low ph fruit. Mangoes are too high ph (up to 6 or more) for canning on their own without adding acid. The upshot of my research is to not chance it without ph strips to test it before jarring to keep, especially in the fact I Never buy the commercial lemon stuff. I use frozen squeezed lemon juice and often use a bit of citric acid but only with fruits I have experience with.
I’ve been canning 50+ years and only with honey. Early days were mostly trial and error – cantaloupe all but exploded and a friend’s awesome salsa recipe sent her long distance to a hospital with a case of botulism where she nearly died! I’ve also gotten extremely ill eating warmed over roasted onions and soft yolk eggs in a well known restaurant.
Short of a long story of canning tales: I’m unable to get tests strips but will make a dab of jam with one of my two beautiful organic mangoes – an amount that can be eaten quickly, and try for strips next year.
Hi Macy. There is a mango jam recipe written on the insert that comes with each pack of Pomona’s pectin. The recipe cals for 4 cups of fruit and 1/4 cup of lemon or lime juice. My recipe calls for 12 cups of fruit and 1.5 cups of lime juice (plus zest), so it’s more than acidic enough. I can assure you it’s safe. But I do appreciate that you want to be safe! There’s plenty of unsafe canning advice on the Internet so always better safe than sorry.
Be aware that honey can contain the spores of C. Botulinum, which is the reason the honey is not to be fed to infants under the age of 1 year, who do not have fully developed digestive systems.
If your mango jam has a low pH, you may be adding botulinum spores to your product.
Bad idea
Hi Darrell,
Everything contains botulism spores. That’s why following proper canning safety rules is important, such as acidifying foods with a high PH or using a pressure canner. Canning with honey is completely safe and there are many tested recipes that call for honey or use honey as a sugar substitute. I have adapted this recipe from the Pomona’s pectin chart that comes in the box with the pectin. It states that you can use either sugar or honey. I will take a photo and share it in this article when I have time. In the meantime, here are some FAQs from the Pomona’s Pectin website about canning with honey: https://pomonapectin.com/?s=honey and here is some more information on botulism and safe canning: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/botulism/
Can you use frozen mangos
Yes, absolutely:)
I don’t have Pomona’s pectin, but I do have Sure Jell fruit pectin “for use in less or no sugar needed recipes.” Will it work in this recipe? My mangoes are quite sweet and I’d like to add as little sugar as possible.
You should be able to use the Sure Jell, but I would check the instructions in/on the box as the directions may be different. I haven’t used Sure Jell before, so I’m not sure if the process is the same (ie, the calcium water, etc.) Otherwise the mango/lime juice/sugar ratios should work the same.
I have used Ball Lo-Sugar Pectin a lot (although not with this recipe) and the Sure Jell should be similar. If you want to do the same amount as Anna’s recipe here, you will need two boxes of the pectin (as Anna’s recipe is a double batch). Then follow the normal instructions as with most fruit jams with commercial pectin. (Mix the fruit with the juice and gradually add in the pectin until mixed well. Heat to a boil and add the sugar. Heat to boil again and remain at a boil for 1 min and then remove from heat and fill jars and process.)
This is the best approximate that I can see to get the most similar results to Anna’s. I hope you like it as much as my daughter does!!
Living on a small island in the Caribbean, I have access to a lot a tree ripened mangoes. But with the constant heat I’m looking for a mango jam recipe similar to my strawberry freezer jam. I also would like it to be very low or no sugar due to diabetes. Can you help.
Nanakate
Hi Nanakate,
This recipe can easily be turned into a freezer jam (instead of canned). It is already a low-sugar jam but you can also make this with no sugar at all, depending on your tastes. Lucky you to have access to fresh local mangoes!
Your mango jam sounds delicious! Have you ever tried honey as a substitute for the sugar? I have access to free honey and it would also be healthier. Just not sure if would work. Any thought would be helpful. Thanks, Debbie
Hi Debbie,
Yes, you can substitute honey for sugar with Pomona’s pectin but because honey is sweeter, you’ll want to use less. Here’s a quick conversion chart: https://pomonapectin.com/faq/if-a-pomonas-pectin-recipe-is-written-specifically-for-sugar-or-specifically-for-honey-can-i-substitute-one-for-the-other-how-much-should-i-use-for-equivalent-sweetness/