Perhaps you already are a huge fan of purple mangosteen, often called “the queen of fruits”… but are you familiar with its lesser known cousin, lemon drop mangosteen? It’s sweet and tart and tastes, well, a lot like a lemon drop candy!
The fruit also looks like little round Christmas ornaments growing on an impressive tree with thick, dark green leaves!
AND the tree produces SOOOOO many fruits each season here! Tons of tons of these delicious delicacies!
Ever Snackable Lemon Drop Mangosteen
They really are more of a snacking fruit though, as they are small and have a juicy, sweet tart pulp that surrounds one or two hard seeds. My favorite way to eat them fresh is to break the skin of the fruit with my nail, pop out the pulp inside, and then suck on the seeds until I can get as much of the pulp off of them as possible! Then I spit the seeds out into the jungle….
Now, breaking open the peel of the fruit is easy… but getting the pulp off the seed, well, takes a bit of finessing, especially if you are looking to do something with them besides eating them fresh out-of-hand.
Are they kitchen friendly though?
Want to see my approach for using these babies in the kitchen?
How about a lemon drop mangosteen jam??
Now, how about we ONLY use 2 ingredients? That’s right! No pectin!
Pin it now to save it for later!
Let’s cook with lemon drop mangosteen!
First, collect your lemon drop mangosteen and give them a good washing.
Now, I use a knife to pierce the skin at the tip of the fruit and then pop put the pulp and seed:
Cook these over medium low heat, stirring frequently, until the pulp separates (or mostly separates) from the seeds. This should take around 20 minutes.
Next, pour the pulp through a colander (with fairly large holes) and into a large bowl. You want the pulp to pass through the holes but the seeds to be retained in the colander. Stir the seeds around with a spoon to encourage the pulp to pass through the holes of the colander and into your bowl below:
Now, we have something we can work with!
Let’s make some jam!
Measure out the filtered, cooked pulp and pour it back into the same saucepan.
For every 1 cup of pulp, add 1 cup of sugar. (Note: I use turbinado sugar, so my jam comes out a darker color than if I used white sugar.)
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.
Cook until mixture thickens to jam consistency. The jam should readily set on a spoon.
Pour hot jam into clean, sanitized jars and seal with lid.
Once jam cools, chill and enjoy with your favorite bread, biscuit, or (my favorite), a PB&J!
Did you know you can find this and many of my other recipes on Pinterest?
Lemon Drop Mangosteen Jam
Notes
Note that I use turbinado sugar, so my jam is darker than if I had used a white sugar.
Ingredients
- Fresh lemon drop mangosteen fruit
- Sugar (I use turbinado sugar, which produces a darker jam)
Instructions
- Wash fruit well.
- Use a knife or your thumb to pierce the skin of the fruit then pop out the pulp with seeds.
- Add pulp (with seeds) to a saucepan.
- Cook over medium low heat, stirring frequently, until the pulp separates (or mostly separates from the seeds). This should take around 20 minutes.
- Pour the pulp through a colander and into a bowl below. (Ideally the colander has fairly large holes that will let more pulp pass through but retain the seeds). Use a spoon to stir the seeds around to encourage the pulp to pass through the holes of the colander and into the bowl below.
- Measure the seed-free pulp that you have collected and pour back into saucepan.
- For every 1 cup of seed-free cooked pulp, add 1 cup of sugar.
- Cook over medium low, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens to jam-like consistency.
- Pour hot jam into clean, sanitized jars and seal.
- Chill and enjoy with on your favorite bread or biscuit!
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