Homemade Plum Jam - No Pectin

A friend of ours stopped by with a bag full of beautifully ripened plums just picked from her trees a couple of weeks ago. Instantly I knew I had to make some jam because there was no way I could eat through that whole bag myself as neither my husband or kids were too fond of fresh plums. I chucked the bag in the fridge and forgot all about it until recently. I finally got up the courage to make my own jam. This is the very first time I made my own jam so wasn't sure what to expect. But let me tell you the process is really simple and the results delicious!

This is the perfect way to make some of your own homemade pectin free jam and I promise it tastes much better that the store bought one.  All you need is fruit, or in this case plums, sugar, and a squeeze of lemon. That is it. Pretty easy, right? This recipe is a bit of a cross between plum jam & plum preserve I think. It still has some fruit chunks in it but it still spreads nicely onto the breads and pancakes.

You really don’t need any special jam making equipment here. I was only making one bottle, which by the way turned out too big though. Well, now I know for next time to get a smaller bottle. J The only pain in this process was sterilizing the jar for the jam. I washed it in hot soapy water, rinsed and dried in a low oven at around 120C until I was ready to bottle the jam. I did not do the whole water bath canner process as I was going to make only one jar of jam and intended to use it immediately and not store it for later. 

Let the jamming begin!!! J

Homemmade Plum Jam

Recipe Source: Rhubarb & Rose

Makes about two 500ml jars

INGREDIENTS

1kg plums

Juice of one lemon
750g caster sugar

METHOD

Rinse the fruit in running water.  You want to start with really clean fruit because we won’t be removing the skins. The skins mostly kind of dissolve during the cooking process and are almost unnoticeable in the final product.

Put 1-2 small ceramic plates in the freezer. This plate will be used to check the jam is cooked enough to set or not.

 Halve and de-stone the plums and juice the lemon.  Mix the plums, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy bottomed, large saucepan.

Cover and leave to macerate for at least an hour to allow the sugar to extract some of the juice. I left mine for over 5 hours. 

Heat the plum mixture over medium-high heat, stirring as needed to prevent sticking, until jam starts to foam & boil, about 15 minutes. 

Continue to cook, stirring minimally and lowering the heat if necessary to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of your pan, until foaming has subsided, about 15 minutes longer. Scrape any foam off jam surface with a stainless steel spoon as needed.

Continue to cook after foaming has subsided until bubbling has slowed and jam looks glossy, 5 to 15 minutes. The color of the plum will turn darker when they cooked.

You can pick up and discard the skins with a fork, if desired. Or be lazy like me and just stir them in, and be happy that you are reserving all that nutritional value of the fruit into the jam! 

When the plum halves have broken down and jam has thickened, begin testing for doneness: Get the plate from the freezer and place a bit of the jam over it. Again, put this plate in freezer for a minute and then remove from it. Test the jam, run a spoon or your finger through the jam and if it leaves the track clear, it is ready. If jam is too runny, return to heat and cook, stirring frequently and repeating the spoon test every 5 minutes, until jam passes test.

Remove pan from heat and allow mixture to rest for 1-2 minutes. Pour the jam into the sterilized jar/s and put the lid on while it is still hot. The jar should also still be hot, or at least warm. I let the jar cool down on the bench and then stored it in the pantry. Store the jam in the fridge once you've opened it.

This explains the testing of doneness for jams a bit more and has pictures to help you understand.

Enjoy!