Unbelievable amount of plums from a small tree at my son Dans house, he has so many he’s giving them away, Well I’m not one for turning down free food and I want to start making my foody Christmas presents, so I made plum jam. Because it’s a fairly small fruit if you don’t peel the plums there will be too much skin in the jam, a little is fine but you don’t want lots so cut through the plum and pour boiling water over them and leave for 45 seconds, then chill under cold water.
This will make it easier to peel, don’t get to hung up on the skin as I said a little skin is fine. Then remove the stone, use a knife if needed to get the flesh of the stone, your cooking the plums after so if they go mushy it’s not a problem.
You need
1.5kg of plums peeled and de-stoned
1kg of sugar
150ml of water
Juice of half a lemon
1 sachet of pectin
Put the plums, water and juice into a saucepan and cook the plums til they start to go mushy.
On a slow simmer add the sugar and let the sugar desolve. Stirring constantly.
Bring to a rolling boil, still stirring constantly for a couple of minutes, add the pectin and cook on a rolling boil for one minute
Turn off the heat.. Meanwhile sterilize jars and lids, place cold jars in cold water and bring to the boil for 10 minutes.
Use a cutting board, with a cloth and kitchen paper on it and remove the jars and lids from the water and drain on the board (the cloth and paper ensures the jars won’t break from going straight on a cold surface).
To get a jam making kit go HERE, if you don’t have tongs or a funnel you can still do this, use a slotted spoon to retrieve the jars, just be careful!
Skim any scum off the top of the jam and put the jam into the jars.
Leave a little head space between the jam and the lids, clean the rims and put the lids on and tighten, you may need to hold the jars with a cloth. Return the hot jars back to the boiling water and boil for five minutes.
Allow to cool, label and store your jams.
