Plum Jam Making

It's plum season on Waiheke, and I have spent the last couple of evenings making lots of jam. If you haven't made jam before I recommend Gillian Painter's book 'A New Zealand Country Harvest', which covers all the basic and doesn't rely on store bought pectin. The process for making jam doesn't vary that much, and once you have more confidence you can just go on your 'jam-making instincts' and not use a recipe. The hardest part about making jam is judging the setting point. I tried a thermometer once but it didn't seem to work... I generally add a good dose of lemon juice to jam, and then use the plate in the freezer technique - when you put a spoonful of jam on a cold plate you can tell more quickly what the consistency is. From Painter's book: the proportions for plum jam are 2kg plums, 3 cups water, 2 kg sugar, juice of 2 lemons. I usually reduce the sugar somewhat although is hard to judge, also depends on how long you want to keep the jam for as jam with less sugar will not keep as well. Feel free to add other comments on making jam!

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  • In Taupo, the plums I have access to are not yet ripe, but thought I could do something with them anyway. Both these recipes worked out really well!! I now need to decide if I should go back to get the rest as they are, and make more of the same or do I wait until they ripen a little?!?!

    Preserved Sour Plums

    1kg plums, unripe
    500g sugar
    300mL white wine vinegar
    1 lemon zested
    4 cloves
    1 finger of ginger, finely grated
    4 cloves garlic, peeled & sliced

    Put sugar, vinegar, lemon zest, garlic & spices into a pan & bring to a simmer. Take off heat. In the meantime, prick the plums all around with a fork & add into the vinegar mixture. Bring back to simmer for 2 min & pour into sterilised jars & seal. Needs a few days for the flavours to amagamate. Spread as a chutney onto a sandwich of your choice, or onto meats. It is tangy & wonderful!! (just remember the plum stones are still in there)



    Tangy Sour Plum Jam

    1kg plums, unripe
    500g sugar
    4 apples roughly chopped, without cores

    Firstly count the number of plums & make a note of it. Bring all to simmer in a pan & as the plum stones float, skim them out with a slotted spoon. Keep count and that way you'll get most, if not all of the stones out. As this takes a while, the jam should have reached setting point, so test it (I do this by adding a bit of jam onto a small plate & into the freezer for a few min, if your finger can cut the jam inot 2 halves, it will set). Pour into sterilised jars & seal. This jam is great for breakfast, if you like the tang, as a spread on meats or as an extra something on a sandwich.
  • i find a few cloves (in muslin bag) added to the plums (if using a deep red plum) add a great spicyness, as does a good slug of brandy or port stirred in just before bottling.
    as a kid we used to make jam with little yellow cherry plums which were very tart raw but made the yummyist jam. boil the plums in just enough water to cover the bottom of the pot by 1 cm. cook the plums stones, skin and all until all pulpy. cool strain through a colinder pushing out all the pulp and leaving behind the skins and pips. for every cup of pulp add 1 cup of sugar. boil as for jam, stirring etc untill setting point is reached. i'm sure you can use less sugar for a sweeter plum, but the ones we used were quite sour. i use this method quite often for making jam with fuit that is difficult to skin or destone, the pulp can be frozen, for later jam making.
  • I made jam yesterday with this recipe - tastes great and looks good, too.
  • I usually add a couple of peeled chopped apples like granny smith to increase the natural pectins and improve setting
  • Thanks Annette, I'll use your recipe next time I make some sauce. I've been promised a good plum chutney recipe today, will post here when I've tried it out. And it never occurred to me to use wine bottles so thanks for the tip!
  • And I spent yesterday morning making plum sauce! Gillian Painter's book is great, but for sauces and pickles I use Digby Law's book.
    I've been making plum sauce for years using my grandmother's recipe - it makes enough to fill 5 wine bottles and as I have plenty of empties, I might make some more. Or I will when Woolworths restocks the vinegars. Spices are best sourced from Fruit and Veg.

    Ingredients: (I'll translate into metric)

    3 kg plums
    2 onions, chopped
    50g garlic, chopped
    1.5 kg brown sugar (white works as well)
    1.5 l malt vinegar
    2 Tbsp salt
    1 tsp mace
    2 tsp cayenne
    2 tsp ginger
    2 tsp black pepper

    Count the number of plums. Bring to boil. Simmer uncovered until all is soft. Remove the plum stones, puree, reheat and pour into hot bottles. Best left a month before use but ages well and will last for years. Fab with sausages or chicken.
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