Mango Jam Recipe: How to Make Mango Jam at Home

Mango jam is a sweet and thick condiment containing ripe mangoes, granulated sugar, citrus juice, and water. While lemon juice is typical for fruit jams, lime juice can enhance the tropical flavor of mangoes.

Mangoes are low in pectin (a natural starch in fruits), so making mango jam usually requires the addition of a thickener. This is similar to the process for strawberry jam and pineapple jam. Incorporating powdered pectin, using additional sugar, and increasing the cooking time are all techniques you can use to thicken jams containing low-pectin fruits.

When making mango jam, use ripe, fresh mangoes during the height of mango season. Making jam with ripe mangoes requires less sugar because the fruit is naturally sweeter and yields more usable flesh. Taste the mango for sweetness before beginning your jam recipe so that you can adjust the amount of sugar accordingly. Additionally, the riper the fruit is, the softer it is, making it easier to mash or purée it.

Jams, preserves, and marmalades are all thick and sweet, fruit-based condiments; however, there are key differences among them:

• Jam consists of mashed or puréed fruit. The texture of jam is smoother than preserves and marmalade but not as smooth as jelly. This is in contrast to mango preserves, which contain large mango pieces.
• Marmalade uses citrus fruit. Fruit jams use all types of fruit—for example, cherries, strawberries, and prickly pears, to name a few. Marmalade, on the other hand, uses only citrus fruits. Citrus rinds are high in pectin (fruit starch), so marmalades thicken naturally as the rind and flesh cook down with the sugar.
• Preserves are looser than jam or marmalade. Preserves contain either whole fruit or large pieces of fruit in sugar syrup. The pieces of fruit take on a candied fruit texture and flavor. This makes preserves less of a cohesive mixture compared to jams and marmalades.