Tomato Bacon Jam is a fun homemade recipe that is packed with flavor! Easy to make by combining the ingredients and using the stove top to cook. This bacon tomato jam can be used to top cheese, pizzas, flat bread, burgers, fritters and more!
Recipes like the Chilli Tomato Jam and Fruit Mince see us using the stove top to create intense flavor combinations to rival any store bought jar of the same.
The Goat Cheese Log, Baked Brie With Cranberry Sauce, Cream Cheese Pepper Jelly and the Baked Brie With Red Pepper Jelly see us top different flavors of cheese with sweet and spicy toppings.
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about the tomato and bacon jam recipe in the points below:
- Simple ingredients: everything you need to make the recipe can be sorted from your local grocery store. They are year round available ingredients that will be easy to get your hands on.
- Fresh produce: have an abundance of tomatoes that you are looking to use? Then this bacon tomato jam will be perfect to whip up. There is a true delight in using a ton of juicy tomatoes and getting your jam on with them.
- Easy recipe: this tomato and bacon jam is an easy recipe to make! We simply prep some veg, do some frying, some blitzing and let it cook!
- Versatile: if you are looking for a homemade condiment that will work across a wide range of serving suggestions this is it! You can use the bacon jam as a sandwich spread, dip, spread, pizza sauce, cheese boarding offering and more!
🥗 Ingredients
The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the bacon and tomato jam recipe. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements as well as detailed instructions.
As you can see the recipe calls for:
- Salt: we use a little bit of salt for seasoning in the recipe.
- Garlic: the garlic gets cooked with the bacon and shallots in an initial stage of the recipe.
- Worcestershire sauce: for a little oomph!
- Lemon juice: store bought bottled lemon juice is perfectly fine to use (and easy!).
- Red wine vinegar: adds a light intensity to the taste of the jam.
- Shallots: the shallots have a much sweeter taste than onions do. We use 2 of them and fry them off with the bacon and garlic to start creating the depth of flavor in the jam.
- Red chilli: these bring another level of flavor to the vegetables in the jam. They are not super hot or spicy and you can take the seeds out if you wish too.
- Brown sugar: loosely packed.
- Bacon: we use store bought diced bacon to keep things easy!
- Tomatoes: fresh tomatoes are always so juicy and literally bursting with flavor! We keep the seeds in which adds texture to the jam.
🍳 Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe. We start by preparing the shallots.
- Peel and slice the shallots (Photo 1)
👩🍳 How to Make Tomato Bacon Jam
To make the tomato bacon jam start by using a clean, dry chopping board to peel the shallots, remove the skin and then roughly chop them.
Once done add them to the bowl of a food processor and give them a quick blitz.
- Add to processor and blitz (Photo 2)
When the shallots are roughly chopped we want to add them, the diced bacon and the garlic to a large sauce pan.
- Cook the bacon, garlic and shallots (Photo 3)
Place the sauce pan on the stove top and turn the heat to high. Cook for 8-10 minutes using a wooden spoon to mix them together and ensure that they are cooking consistently throughout this time.
Next prepare the chilli by using a sharp knife and cutting board to remove the stems.
- Remove the stems from the chilli (Photo 4)
Next, prepare the tomatoes by cutting the top off and then slicing them in halves.
- Prepare the tomatoes (Photo 5)
Then when ready add the tomatoes and chilli to the food processor bowl like show in the photo below.
- Add the tomatoes and chilli to the food processor (Photo 6)
Then blitz them for 5 to 10 seconds so that they look like the photo below.
- Blitz for 5 -10 seconds (Photo 7)
Next, we add the remaining ingredients (not the ones we cooked in the saucepan, they can stay there) to the food processor.
- Add the remaining ingredients (Photo 8)
So add in the brown sugar, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, Worcestershire and salt.
Blitz these together and once done transfer the mixture to the saucepan with the cooked bacon mixture.
- Transfer to sauce pan (Photo 9)
Initially we bring the jam to the boil, then we reduce the heat slightly and let it cook. Patience will be a virtue as it will take around 1 hour from start to finish for the jam to thicken and reduce.
Once it is done, you can turn the heat off and let the jam start to cool.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
When it comes to serving your jam, you have a wide variety of options available to choose from!
You can use it as a sandwich spread, grilled cheese filling, burger topping, pizza ingredient, stirred through pasta or as a condiment on an Olive Platter, Grazing Platter or Baked Camembert Platter.
It pairs exceptionally well with cheese and some flavor combinations are with brie, cream cheese, camembert, cheddar, asiago, picked onion cheese or your favorite cheese.
Mix it with your scrambled eggs or dollop it on this that and practically everything else!
Or if cheese and crackers isn't your thing, use the jam as a condiment on the side of meats like the Bourbon Glazed Ham, Pork Leg Roast, Roast Pork Shoulder or the Air Fryer Roast Chicken 😁👍.
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
Let the jam fully cool in the saucepan. Once it has transfer it to a sealed, air tight container. It can be refrigerated for 5 to 7 days.
How to Freeze
Or follow the step above to transfer the cooled jam into a sealed, air tight container and once you have place it in the freezer. The jam can be frozen for up to 3 months.
How to Reheat
I think that the jam works best served cold. It is a condiment that develops more flavor the longer it sits. So you won't need to reheat it. However, you can remove frozen portions of the jam from the freezer and let them thaw. Then serve once thawed. Jam that has been frozen cannot be frozen again (one time only).
😉 Substitutions and Variations
Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:
- You will be suprised how mild the chilli flavor is in the flavor profile of the cooked jam. That being said if you want to omit the chilli to not have a 'spicy' taste you can.
- I like to use chunky chopped jarred garlic. This is because it is convenient and you can always have it on hand. You can do the same or use 2-3 fresh garlic cloves, minced garlic or garlic paste from the fresh produce section of the supermarket.
- A wooden spoon comes in handy when you are making the jam as we stir it reasonably often and the timber won't scratch the surface of the pan.
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:
- Patience is key to cooking the jam and watching it reduce over time. It is not a super quick process but you will notice the subtle changes as the liquid reduces and the jam starts to thicken.
- If making homemade spreads and sauces is your thing then you might like to try the Apple Sauce For Pork Belly, Gorgonzola Sauce, Saffron Sauce, Herbed Yogurt Sauce, Blue Cheese Yogurt Dip, Basil Yogurt Sauce, Cilantro Lime Yogurt Sauce, Garlic Yogurt Sauce or the Lemon Yogurt Sauce 😄👍.
- Or if recipes with bacon in them call your name then try the Bacon And Cheese Cob Loaf, Bacon Crackers, Bacon And Corn Fritters, Cheese and Bacon Pinwheels or the Slow Cooker Bean And Bacon Soup 😉👌.
- If it is recipes with fresh produce that call your name try the Mango Tomato Salsa.
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
Bacon jam tastes good on a wide variety of pairings. Some suggestions are to try it as a condiment for cheese, as a pizza sauce, as a burger topping, stirred through pasta, on flat breads.
Yes. Bacon jam needs to be refrigerated. It can be kept for 5-7 days in the fridge.
Yes. Homemade bacon jam can be frozen. Doing so will keep it fresh for longer so that you can store it, thaw and used as needed.
Bacon jam needs time to thicken. If it is not it usually means it hasn't been cooked for long enough. Keep cooking until the jam does thicken and reduce.
No you can't. The jam is best kept in a sealed, airtight container in the fridge.
😍 More Easy Appetizer Recipes
Snacky snacks and party food! We all love a bit of this and that, especially throughout the holiday season. Here are some more ideas for you to try:
- Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates
- Spinach Cob Loaf Dip
- Baked Feta With Honey
- Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Bites
- Mini Croissant Sandwiches
- Tater Tot Cups
- Caramelised Onion Sausage Rolls
It is time to get our tomato bacon jam on my friend! You can also find all of my sauce recipes, dips and spreads or popular recipes in the one spot.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Tomato Bacon Jam
Ingredients
- 2 shallots Note 1
- 2 cups bacon diced, Note 2
- 1 tablespoon garlic chunky chopped, Note 3
- 2 long red chilli Note 4
- 1 kg/2.2 pounds tomatoes Note 5
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ½ cup/125 ml red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup/60 ml lemon juice Note 6
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce Note 7
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Shallots: peel the shallots, slice in halves and then add them to the food processor. Give them a quick blitz (2-3 seconds) to roughly chop.
- Fry: add the diced bacon, blitzed shallots and garlic to a large sauce pan. Turn the heat to high and cook for 8-10 minutes. Use a wooden spoon during this time to move the ingredients about, ensuring that the ingredients are mixed together well and cooking consistently.
- Tomato and chilli: next use a sharp knife to remove the stems from the chilli and discard. Then use the same knife to cut the top off each tomato and the remaining tomato in halves. Add the tomatoes and chilli to the food processor and blitz for 5 to 10 seconds.
- Remaining ingredients: next add the brown sugar, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and salt to the blitzed tomatoes and chilli. Then blitz these to combine.
- Combine: remove the lid from the food processor and transfer the tomato mixture into the sauce pan with the cooked bacon mixture.
- Cook: place the saucepan onto the stovetop (lid off), turn the heat to high and bring to the boil (will take 8-10 minutes). Once it has reached boiling point, turn the heat down to medium (bubbles at edges but not bubbling in the centre) and put the lid on. Now cook the jam allowing it to thicken and reduce stirring regularly over a 40 minute period. When the 40 minutes is up, remove the lid, stir and give the jam a final 10 minutes of cooking so that almost all of the liquid is absorbed with the jam having a thick chunky texture.
- To serve: once the jam has cooked, turn the stove off and let it cool. Then portion the jam into a sealed, airtight container. Serve it on a grazing platter, cheese board, condiment for meats, dip or spread. It needs to be refrigerated for storage and will last 5 days in the fridge.
Notes
- Note 1 - Shallots: Aussies, these are not green onions. These are small onion like vegetables that have a bulb shape. They are sweet and more mild in flavor than a red or a brown onion. You will find them in the produce part of the shop.
- Note 2 - Bacon: store bought diced bacon is best to use as there is no prep work involved. The size of the pieces always works well with the texture of the other ingredients combined for the jam.
- Note 3 - Garlic: you can use 2 fresh garlic cloves (blitz with the shallots) if you like. Or chunky chopped jarred garlic (my favourite), minced garlic or garlic paste (equivalent amount).
- Note 4 - Red chilli: these are the long red chilli that you see pictured in the ingredients photo. They are less spicy than their mini red hot chilli varieties. All we need to do is cut off the stalks. If you want to remove the seeds you can, however, I find that the overall jam flavor is enhanced by keeping them in plus it is by no means a 'hot and spicy jam'. It is more of a blended flavor profile.
- Note 5 - Tomatoes: roma tomatoes, truss tomatoes or gourmet tomatoes.
- Note 6 - Lemon juice: from a bottle is total fine (keeps things easy also!).
- Note 7 - Worcestershire sauce: adds oomph in the flavor profile! I use an Australian 20 ml tablespoon. This is slightly larger than the imperial tablespoon measure that is 15 ml (FYI American friends).
Belinda says
Looks amazing!
Adrianne says
Thanks Belinda 😁.