Vietnamese cuisine: Lots of “homemade” Tet jams
In the bustling atmosphere of the last days of the year, everyone is busy cleaning and decorating their homes to prepare to welcome the new year. To make the traditional Tet holiday more meaningful, many housewives go into the kitchen together and make cakes, jams, and candies that are both delicious and safe for health.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy makes Tet jam. Photo: DH
In 2024, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (a Thua Thien Hue girl who returned to Quang Nam as a bride) started making her own Tet jam to serve her family and as gifts for relatives and friends. She especially loves cooking, and is currently taking a break from work to stay home and take care of her children. She has a lot of time, so she chooses to make jam to enjoy during Tet. Only once a year, the feeling of making jam, drying it, slugging jam… is the feeling of the warm Tet atmosphere coming.
Thinking regarding everyone coming to her house to celebrate Tet and enjoying the coconut jam, pumpkin jam, and carrot jam that she made herself makes her feel excited. And the interesting thing is, following posting the jam she made herself on Facebook, many people liked to order it, so she decided to make more types of jam to serve those who love homemade brand jam.
Ms. Thuy confided: This year, I made all kinds of jams: squash, carrots, coconut, ginger, turmeric… with prices ranging from 160-180,000 VND/kg. The reason why “homemade jam” often has a higher price than on the market is because meticulous attention must be paid from choosing ingredients to processing. Therefore, to ensure quality and create prestige for the product, my family does not use preservatives. The jam dyes all use natural ingredients from pandan leaves, butterfly pea flowers, beetroot, and turmeric. For each type of jam, I calculate the amount of sugar, the marinating time to save costs, and the time for continuous slicing to keep up with the quantity for orders.
Ingredients for making jam are very rich and easy to buy, including: fruits and vegetables such as: Ginger, coconut, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, oranges, apples, tamarind, carrots… and white sugar, products are always available on the Internet. market.
Vietnamese cuisine: “Homemade” Tet jam says no to additives
As a kindergarten teacher, nearly a month before Tet, taking advantage of the weekend, Ms. Phan Thi Mo bought ingredients to make jam. Ms. Mo shared: “Initially, I made jam as a hobby, so that my family might enjoy safe food during Tet, as a gift for relatives. After that, friends and relatives praised the taste. , quality so I have the motivation and boldness to do it in larger quantities for business.”
Ms. Phan Thi Mo showed off her skill and received a large response from women. Photo: DH
Realizing that the demand for making jam among women is increasing as Tet approaches, Ms. Le Thi Dieu Thien boldly imported jam-making ingredients such as young coconut, ginger… to serve the women making jam. Ms. Thien prioritizes clean, organic agricultural ingredients, even though the price is a bit more expensive, but ensures that housewives make jam. After collecting orders, most of the ingredients she brought back were sold out, proving that she is very passionate regarding making Tet jam.
“Homegrown” products prepared by women are not only delicious and safe, but also demonstrate the ingenuity and resourcefulness of housewives. It can be said that joy and happiness are not far away, simply coming from sweet dishes for loved ones during warm Tet holidays.
The trend of making homemade jam among women satisfies their interests and passions. Photo: DH
The trend of making homemade jam is increasingly spreading, not only for housewives to satisfy their interests and passion for cooking but is gradually catching up with the demand for using “homemade” products. From recipes available on the Internet or learned from relatives or creating more elaborate, homemade jam products for Tet, homemade jam products attract people to enjoy and are the priority choice of many families.
Tet jam is not simply a snack, its sweet flavor is the bridge to moments of family reunion at the tea table, chatting regarding stories of the old year and plans and wishes for the year. Just arrived.
Spring days are coming very close, the atmosphere of producing Tet cakes and jams makes life more bustling. Over time, the typical and traditional flavors in the cakes and jams that the girls and women make still attract and are favored by many people, contributing to preserving the beauty of the nation’s traditional Tet.
