Plum Jam

I use the same recipe for plum jam and for greengage jam.  The fabulous thing about plum jam is that you can cook them whole without needing to remove the pits – they float to the top when cooking and you simply lift them out with a spoon.

Allotmenteer caution: If you’re not sure whether your plums have plum worm you can halve a few of your fruit to check before you get cooking!  It’s not nice to think of eating a fruity worm jam, so better safe than sorry.

Greengage jam turns a golden unctuous colour, like greened honey.

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Victoria Plum Jam (5 August 2020)

Victoria plum jam has a lovely pink tone.

Many recipes call for equal measures of fruit and sugar, but I reduce this to one measure to three quarters – eg 1 kilo of fruit and 750 g of sugar.  Plain old granulated sugar is just fine – no need to use jam sugar or add extra pectin.

Warm the plums in a pan with a touch of water.

Once the fruit has softened (but not completely disintegrated), add the sugar and lemon juice.  (I use the juice of a single lemon and keep the pips.  Although pectin’s not required, I do bag up the lemon pips in muslin and hang it with roasting string into the boiling mass of fruit.)

Once the sugar has completely dissolved, bring to a rolling boil for about 20 minutes.
At this point refer to your jam thermometer, or do a ‘wrinkle test’ by placing a spoonful of jam on a cold dish and then put in the fridge for 5 minutes.  If the jam wrinkles when you push it gently with a finger, it’s done!
It’s that simple.  Yum!