Banana Jam and Onion Vinegar (2 separate recipes!)

These recipes come from Fine Preserving, by Catherine Plagemann, published in 1967 by Simon and Schuster. Most of the recipes are for fruit jellies, but there are also some interesting fruit pickles, preserves, ketchups, and an onion vinegar. Plagemann took the vinegar recipe from a book called Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, published by Scribner, Armstrong and Company in 1877.

The Banana Jam is delicious! According to the author, the recipe came to her from India. She likes it on muffins, as a filling for white cake (especially if there is coconut on the frosting) and on hot, buttered waffles. I often make it as a gift for Christmas.

8 ripe bananas, about medium size
3 fine lemons, medium size
3 cups granulated sugar
3 cups water
1 whole piece of dried or peeled green ginger, about the size of a large olive
some cloves

Squeeze the juice from the lemons and slice the rind into paper-thin strips. Boil the sugar and water about 10 minutes. Then add the lemon juice and rind, the bananas carefully mashed, the ginger and a few cloves. Cook this slowly for 1/2 or 3/4 of an hour. Stir it carefully so that it will not scorch. It will become a pale-yellow mush, and does not need to be tested for proper consistency. Take out the lump of ginger before you put it into the glasses. This quantity will make about 7 eight-ounce glasses.


Onion Vinegar - use it on green salad or as a vinaigrette over cooked chilled vegetables such as asparagus, beets, carrots, or cauliflower

Chop fairly fine 6 large onions and sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of salt. Put this in a large glass jar - larger than a quart. Scald 1 quart of the best white distilled vinegar and dissolve in it 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. Pour this over the oions. Place the lid on tightly. Allow the onions to steep in the vinegar for 2 weeks, then strain it and put it into bottles and cork them tightly.