Making Plum Jam

Jam Adventure

I have somehow managed to acquire a second allotment. It's a long story which I might bore everybody with at some point.

This new allotment has a plethora of fruit trees. Apples, Pears, Damsons and Plums.

As you walk around the garden you hear a frequent thudding noise, as the fruit drops to the ground. A terrible waste.

So I decided to pick and use as much as possible.

The apples and pears are consumed quite readily by the family.

Only problem being that there are 3 Plum trees, each yielding 10-12lb of fruit, all ripe at the same time.

You can only give away so many plums, before people start to avoid you and there is only so much Plum wine you can make with 3 demijohns.

Which led me the possibility of making Jam!

I studied Latin at school instead of Cookery.

So I know that Plums are called Prunus but I've never made jam.

I did the Google thing and found 2,890,000 results for Plum Jam recipes.

Dream on!! I wasn't going to read through all of those trying to decipher which was a good usable recipe and which was utter nonsense and was about to give up, when I discovered THE BOOK

It belonged to my mother and it's called:

"Preserves and Preserving" by Olive Odell (published by Macdonald Educational)

Copyrighted by WI Books Ltd 1978

I'm probably wrong, but in my mind the Women's Institute and Jam are synonymous.

This book proves me right. It is a wonderful book. Easy to follow recipes, lovely photos, metric and imperial measures....and it tells you how much stuff you're likely to end up with!

It also explains to Jam Virgins, like me, all about Pectin and Setting Points and why you need all the different sugars and paraphernalia.

In addition, the book contains useful tips for entering produce into shows and competitions - I don't think so!

The Plum Jam recipe looked simple enough, so I had a go.

Most of the equipment needed, I already had - an aluminium Preserving Pan (courtesy of my Mum), Scales, Measuring Jug, Wooden Spoon,+ Slotted Steel Spoon.

I reckoned I could live without a Sugar Thermometer and a wide-necked Funnel.

Big Problem!! No Jam Jars!

God Bless Ikea, is all I can say.

I halved the quantities, as I didn't think I could cope with 10lb of jam, especially if it was a disaster. In fact there might have been less than half of everything, who knows.

I have a somewhat Cavalier Attitude in the kitchen and am renown for functioning on "ish"

I did kind of follow the recipe.

I used:

3lb (1.5kg) Plums

3lb (1.5kg) Preserving Sugar

1/2 pint (300ml) Water

This is what I did:

Removed the stones from the plums - you're supposed to half them, but by the time I got the stones out, they were in bits anyway

Put them in a pan with the water and simmered until the fruit was soft. At this point I took out as many skins as possible as I loathe jam with skins in.

I took the pan off the heat and then stirred in the sugar, until it dissolved.

Returned it to the heat and brought it to the boil and let it boil until the Setting Point was reached. I skimmed off any scum with the slotted spoon.

Put the jam into warmed jam jars. I had scolded out the jars with boiling water, which was hazardous.

I didn't use those funny little waxed paper disks on top of the jam because the jars I bought had proper screw lids

The Setting Point thing freaked me out at first. The easiest way to judge it, according to the book, is to put a teaspoon of the boiling jam onto a cold saucer, wait 1 minute for it to cool, then push the surface of the blob with your finger. If the surface wrinkles, then the Setting Point has been reached. Very scientific.

The Pectin is the stuff in fruit which makes the jam set - the sticky stuff. Some fruit has more Pectin than others. Plums have loads.

My children won't touch any jam unless it's shop bought Strawberry.

I made my Plum jam 3 days ago and it's all been eaten.

WooooHoooo!!