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Tuesday, 09 September 2008 |
The late Laurie Colwin provided a sketchy but compelling recipe for plum jam in her book, Home Cooking. That recipe led me to try making plum jam following my own instincts instead of a prescribed formula. But as these processes tend to go, I have developed a formula, and now I suppose I have come full circle. I slice the plums lengthwise into wedges before measuring and pack them, almost crushed into the measuring cup.If you have a home scale, use 18 ounces of prepared fruit. Cook the mixture at a lively clip so that it reaches the jelling point before the fruit loses too much of its character.
(Makes four half-pint jars)
2 1/2 cups pitted and sliced Italian Prune plums, packed
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
The juice of 1 lemon
1.) In a stockpot or a canning kettle, cover 4 clean, 8-ounce canning jars with boiling water. Simmer, covered over low heat to sterilize jars.
2.) Put the plums, water, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy 4-quart soup or Dutch oven over high heat. Stir until the mixture boils; reduce heat to medium-high and continue stirring to prevent sticking until the plums are collapsing in on themselves and the syrup around them is beginning to thicken, about .
3.) With tongs, lift the jars out of their simmering water bath and stand them empty and upright on a clean kitchen towel. Ladle the jam into sterilized jars and seal the jars. Any jam that dribbled onto the lips of the jars can be removed with a clean paper towel dipped into the boiling water.
4.) Put on the lids and seal the jars according to manufacturer's instructions then put the filled jars back in the boiling water and boil for five minutes. Allow the jam to cool in the jars undisturbed for several hours or overnight. Jam keeps in a cool dark place for at least a year.
Copyright, Greg Atkinson, 2008
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