At The Benton Boutique, we offer a wide variety of gourmet foods for you to enjoy or to give as gifts, and one of our most popular options is our jams. In our experience, the only thing that many people do with jam is to eat it on toast or in PB&Js, but there are so many more possibilities to explore. In this article, we will go over three great ways to use jams in your cooking to help you get started.
• Jam Goes Great with Meat. One way to incorporate jams into your cooking is to use them to add flavor to your meat dishes. Many meats pair beautifully with the fruity sweetness of jam—for example, apricot or peach jam pairs wonderfully with pork chops, and currant jam with red wine makes an excellent sauce for steaks.
• Jam Makes an Excellent Salad Dressing. Another way to use jams in your cooking is to add them to your salad dressing. We recommend adding a spoonful of jam to your vinaigrettes to balance the acidity of the vinegar and give your salad a pop of sweetness that will make the whole dish sing.
• Jam Pairs Well with Soft Cheese. A third way to use jams in your cooking is to pair them with soft cheeses like brie to create a delicious flavor pairing. In addition, you can also spread jams over cream cheese to make your bagel, toast, or crackers even more tasty—we particularly love using spicy or savory jams for this purpose.