Doce de Jaca

Brazilian jackfruit in syrup: bulbs of the firm jaca-dura cooked slowly in sugar syrup with cloves until translucent and glossy

Origin: Salvador & Bahia, Brazil

From the journey of Jackfruit.

Doce de jaca is one of the fruit preserves of the Brazilian kitchen, the doces em calda that are kept in jars and eaten by the spoonful: bulbs of ripe jackfruit, seeded, cooked slowly in a syrup of sugar and water with cloves, and sometimes cinnamon or lime, until they turn translucent and the syrup thickens. Brazil divides its jackfruit three ways, the firm jaca-dura, the soft and sweet jaca-mole, and the jaca-manteiga between them, and the doce wants the firm fruit, which holds its shape through the long simmer. The cloves in the syrup have a history of their own. In 1677 the prince regent Pedro, hoping to break the Dutch hold on the spice trade, asked the governor of Goa for seeds of cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg to plant in Brazil, and the India fleets, allowed to call at Salvador since 1671, carried what could be found. The cloves, as Warren Dean records, could not be had, for the Dutch guarded the Moluccas too closely; but with the other seeds the Jesuits in Brazil received seeds of the jackfruit and the mango. The spice plan failed. The jackfruit spread along the whole Atlantic coast, became a food of the enslaved and of the poor, and is now cooked in syrup with the spice the plan could not obtain.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg ripe firm jackfruit bulbs (jaca-dura), seeded, larger bulbs halved
  • 600 g granulated sugar
  • 600 ml water
  • 10 cloves
  • 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
  • 0.5 lime, juiced

Method

  1. Oil your hands and a knife, open the jackfruit, and pull the bulbs from the fibres. Remove the seeds and halve the larger bulbs.
  2. Bring the sugar, water, cloves, and cinnamon to the boil in a wide, heavy pan and boil for 5 minutes, until the syrup is clear.
  3. Add the jackfruit and simmer, uncovered, over a low heat for 45 minutes to an hour, spooning the syrup over the fruit, until the bulbs are translucent and the syrup has thickened to a thread.
  4. Add the lime juice in the last 5 minutes.
  5. Leave to cool, then spoon into clean jars and refrigerate. Serve chilled, on its own or with a slice of fresh white cheese.

Notes

Soft jaca-mole falls apart in syrup; use it for jam instead. Kept in the refrigerator in sterilised jars, the doce lasts two to three weeks.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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