Jamtastic Ideas

This autumn my family had a very very poor fruit season. We basically got 5 damsons, no apples, some hedgerow berries, and some very very furry and inedible looking pears. But because I’d been collecting jam jars all year, we went to pick plums at a local Pick Your Own farm, and bought about a cow’s weight in Victoria plums. Hurrah! So jam happened.

Sister posing pretty with plums. The rest of us were using Sainsbury's carrier bags...

 

Plum Jam

3lbs of plums

3 lbs of sugar

Approx 1 pint of water

Optional lemon juice.

(Obv, adjust proportions for the amount of plums.)

So basically you have a choice in your method. It depends which activity you find annoying.

The options are either to stone the plums first, and to use the juice of a lemon to help it set. Or to use the plums whole, and then sieve the stones out with a spoon, removing the stones by hand. You can even stew the fruit, let it cool, and then pull all the stones out with your fingers. In this case you do not necessarily need the lemon apparently, but it may still help.

The method I use:

Before you start you need to sterilise your jam jars and lids, so that your jam will last a long time in storage without going off. Wash them well, and then put them in the oven at a very high temperature for at least half an hour, and then let them cool. You can also sterilise by boiling jars and lids.

I first wash and stone the plums, and cut up the flesh.

Put the plums, water and lemon juice into a large saucepan and boil the fruit until completely soft (approx half an hour).

Dissolve the sugar in the stewed fruit, stirring constantly.

Boil the mixture until it reaches setting point- this is probably about 15 minutes. Skim some of the scum off the top of the mixture.

Test for the setting point by dripping jam onto a cool plate, letting it cool for a short while and looking at its texture. E.g. if you draw a line through some jam on the plate, does the jam close up again quickly? Or push into the side of a puddle and jam, and see if the surface wrinkles.

When you’ve reached setting point, pour it into the jars up to the very top, add a waxed paper cover if you like and put the lids on immediately. This means that there is minimal oxygen in the jar, and the jam will keep for longer. If the jar lids have depressing centres, they will be pulled down as the jam cools, and show that the jam has not been opened since you made it.

Warning. Horrific Sweeney-Tood-Esqe mess may occur. The above is the blood of innocent damsons.

Common problem: not setting? Either lemon juice or apple will help your jam to set so make sure you’ve included one of these ingredients. If you cannot get your jam to set with these ingredients, you can buy sugar with added pectin.

So if, like me, you have a lot of plums (or near equivalent) and want to play with different ideas, add different flavourings. The most popular one I’ve made so far has been Plum and Lemon Jam, or Lemon and Plum Marmalade, however you want to say it.

To make this I added the grated zest and the juice of 4 or 5 lemons with the plums. You can also taste it near the end to see if you need more sugar to balance the lemon, or more lemon if you want more of a marmalade taste.

I also made Mulled Plum Jam, which is great. Use about pint of wine, the juice of a large orange, and a little water instead of the water in the recipe above. Also add a few spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, or other mulling spices. This recipe may have trouble setting, so you may need to add some apple, lemon, or pectin as well. I used a little lemon, and a little added pectin. I have heard of people adding raisons or some kind of dead grape to this recipe too. I would hate that, but you may not!

You can use plum recipes with any plum-like fruit too, e.g. peaches, nectarines, greengages, damsons. If using damsons it may be easier to pick the stones out later, as they’re small and difficult to get out with a knife. Other ideas are plum/peach and ginger and plum and brandy.

Happy jamming!!