Guava Butter

According to the Wiki entry for fruit preserves, a recipe that calls for heating fruit, mashing it through a sieve, then cooking the pulp with sugar until it thickens, is called a fruit butter. I've been prancing around for days telling people that I made jam.

So now I stand corrected: I made fresh guava butter.

My magical neighborhood grocery had fresh guava fruit so I snatched it up without knowing what I was supposed to do with it. Anyone who knows me knows that this isn't the first time I bought an ingredient I had no clue how to cook.

I've had guava juice many times and guava-scented soaps. Being a huge fan of anything citrus, the lemony aroma of the guava fruit has always been appealing to me. However, I had never eaten the fruit itself.

Some quick Googling told me that the skin is edible but bitter, that the skin is loaded with pectin (a gelling agent commonly used and required in preserves), and that the seeds should be avoided. Latin and West Indian cuisines use guava jam quite a bit. It wouldn't surprise me if there are many others who do the same.

Passing the boiled (whole) fruit through a sieve was a tedious exercise but it was a simple way to remove the seeds and break down the skins. Once the sugar and some extra pectin were added, the resulting mash took no time to thicken over low heat. Chilling them in the fridge allowed them to thicken some more.

I prefer a touch of tartness over sweetness, so I was conservative with the sugar. The resulting guava butter on toast is a bright way to start my day.