nothin New Jams Simmer Slowly, Move Fast At Skappo | New Haven Independent

New Jams Simmer Slowly, Move Fast At Skappo

Aliyya Swaby Photo

Boiling fruit and sugar for a half-hour might technically make a jelly. Yvette Sincavage spends four hours slow-cooking dried apricots, water, sugar and lemon for Skappo’s new line of jams, which reminds her of an important lesson: You can slow down a bit if you want to.”

Two generations of Sincavages run Skappo Italian Wine Bar at 59 Crown St.—Yvette, her parents Anna and Tom, and her two siblings Michael and Marc. They also sell imported and homemade Italian food products in Skappo Merkato at 51 Orange St. around the corner, including jars of the specialty jams: fig spread, apricot jam, balsamic red onion and apple plum chutney.

In both spots they rely on Anna’s Umbrian recipes. Yvette said they don’t cut corners, including with the new line of jams.

The Sincavages transitioned from small-scale kitchen cooking to larger scale bulk production of the jams in late December. They are now managing their second batch of orders. Next step: figuring out a cost-effective way to go organic.

Yvette’s mother Anna began to sell her jams six years ago, mainly to local farmers markets. The jams sold well enough that the Sincavages considered expanding the operation. Last year, Anna tore her meniscus and was out of the kitchen for two months. The three siblings thought about how to fill her very large shoes in the business and decided to make the jam sub-business a reality.

The idea stuck. Marc, who was a business major at college, cold-called businesses throughout Connecticut to get them to stock the Skappo-brand jams.

Yvette and Michael said they would never consider leaving New Haven. The Sincavages have built not only a business but also a history in this city.

Yvette’s grandparents came to New Haven in 1989 after a tornado ravaged the city, ripping trees out and damaging buildings. Her grandmother was discouraged that they were going to start their new life in such a broken place, Yvette said. Her grandfather, a lovable, joyful type,” gave her grandmother a bottle of Asti, sparkling white Italian wine, and told her to hold on to it to remember to celebrate life.”

The bottle became more of a symbol,” Yvette said. During every Sincavage milestone, including birthdays, graduations and weddings, they considered opening the wine, but they could never bring themselves to follow through. They pasted a photo on the bottle of their grandparents posing just after getting engaged. And when the family opened Skappo, they placed the bottle on a rack on the wall of the restaurant, with their grandparents looking out at the business they inspired.

Both Marc and Michael have proposed marriage to their significant others in the restaurant, under that bottle.

They use primarily all-natural ingredients for the jams, with just sulfites as a preservative for the apricot jam. There’s nothing you can’t pronounce in them,” Yvette said. They plan to add a lemon jam to the rotation, which Anna made for the siblings when they were younger. Her recipes take hours to complete well, to simmer the ingredients and to properly store.

The larger-scale production is no different,” Yvette said. Marc and Michael oversee the process, reminding the co-packers to mash the fruits before they mix them in together.

The jump to organic might not be too large, Michael said. It seems like a lot of people are looking for that sort of thing. … It’s definitely becoming mainstream.”

The siblings grew up eating that way — Michael recalled seeing commercials for Chef Boyardee canned Italian meals and craving the fast food. But their mother put her foot down.

We weren’t allowed to taste it,” Yvette said.

Both siblings came to Skappo from other jobs; Yvette from public relations in Boston and Michael from trading in New York. In a way they’re continuing a family tradition that goes even further back than their mother. Their grandfather owned a gourmet store on Davenport Avenue in the Hill neighborhood in the 1990s. The family started Skappo in 2004.

It’s neat,” Michael said, that we’re able to come back.”

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