(Photo: Louis Pieterse) 
This recipe accompanies this story
Ingredients
1.5 kg makataan flesh from the centre of the melon, pips removed
500 g pears, peeled and chopped
1 lemon, sliced thinly
1 lime, sliced thinly
1 orange, sliced thinly
Juice of 2 limes
7 cups white sugar
1 cup caramel sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 litres water
Method
Put everything in a huge heavy pot. Bring to a boil, stirring, and keep stirring until the sugar has all dissolved. Boil rapidly until it has reached setting stage. Test this by putting a dessert spoon in the freezer until needed.
When the syrup has reduced by about half, start doing tests at 3 to 5 minute intervals. Pour a little of the syrup onto the chilled spoon (using a teaspoon) and return the dessert spoon to the freezer for 2 minutes. Take it out and look at it, tilting the spoon this way and that. It should be fairly stiff but move just a little. More sensibly, it should look and feel like jam as you know it should be. This is a skill that comes with practice, but you should be able to pull it off. When it’s right, bottle in sterilised jars, up to the brim. DM/TGIFood
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