how to pit plums for jam

I have a steamer basket that I use for blanching beans that would work for this as well. Review: 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal Paine, Homeschooling Checklists: Pros, Cautions, and Special Situations, Review: A Mosaic of Wings by Kimberly Duffy, Review: Unyielding Hope by Janette Oke and Laurel Oke Logan, Review: Introduction to Psychology from a Christian Perspective by Vicki Tillman, Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. If you just want something yummy and don’t mind a wee bit of extra texture, throw them in whole and save yourself hours of work. Bring to a boil at moderate heat with just enough water to prevent sticking. Place plums in a heavy-bottomed, 4-quart pot, stir in … My grandma makes a wonderful plum preserve. Reduce the heat to low. If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment. Add the sugar and lemon juice and heat the pot, initially over medium heat so the plums or sugar don't scorch. Required fields are marked *. If you ever try it, I’d love to hear about that. If I was going to make jam, I had to plan on making jam in advance. Wild plums, unlike many of their domestic counterparts, are small and tart, about the size of a large grape. If you want to have prize-winning jam or sauce, you’ll need to peel them. It wasn't enough. I hope it went very well. I’m going to try this technique using my instapot. The plums on my tree are smaller than previous years and I was not looking forward to deseeding them at all. These are shiro plums, small yellow with very clingy pits that are a pain to de-pit the regular way. Finely chop or grind fruit. Keep cooking the plums—you want to cook them down enough that they reduce by about one-quarter. As the jam starts to get thick and glossy (this should take 15 to 30 minutes or so), it's time to check for doneness. My Mother in law who taught me laughed so much she nearly fell off her chair and said you will learn, I sure did. of fruit. I had boiled the plums as the recipe said, and then strained them through a colander to get the pits out, as the recipe had said. What a stunning color! The peel is thin AND it holds some of the pectin of the fruit. Discard the pits.) Your email address will not be published. Take the plums out of the bath and let them cool at room temperature. This is a summary of what I learned, along with some step-by-step instructions on how to make it yourself using your own plums (or plums from the farmers market or supermarket). Cut the plums in half, roughly, but don't bother pitting or peeling them. No stirring needed. How to Make Big Batch Plum Jam. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest recipes and tips! As you can imagine, I got quite a bit of practice at making jam. Once the … Disclaimer: Because I don't use lemon juice in my recipe, there's a chance that if your plums are particularly low-acid, they may not be 100% safe to store at room temperature. If only I’d found this *before* I spent most of the day removing pits from 16 lbs of plums by hand, one at a time. Instead of using the stove top, I bake the plums in the oven on a low heat-325. Your email address will not be published. Repeat step 2 a total of FOUR times. I did not know that plum pits are rich in pectin, but that is a good thing to keep in mind. I would be interested in knowing how it went. I was using Damson plums with those clinging pits, so if it worked with Damsons it should work with any plums. Does that work? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. If you have one of those fancy jamming funnels, go ahead and use it, but I find that a plastic deli container is the best device for scooping food from one location to another with minimal dripping. Well, there I stood, picking away at the mess in my colander. After you've sliced along the seam and twisted the fruit open, take the half of the plum with the pit and place it pit-side down. This simple wild plum jam recipe is written to be scaled. I went to the hardware store and looked for any container with holes just a bit smaller than the stones. Place the plums and the sugar in a heavy-bottomed jam pot and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Fill a large bowl with ice and water. Linked to Better Mom Monday, Encourage One Another Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Works For Me Wednesday , Raising Homemakers, Simple Lives Thursday, and Frugal Friday. The key to great flavor is to use a really wide-mouthed pan. Tall and light with a crisp shell and a lightly chewy center. Optionally, you could try Annie Kate’s method of pitting plums. Bring to a boil over high … But for clingstone varieties, like these elephant heart plums, it's easiest to cut the pit out with a knife. Easy! Finely chop or force plums through a food chopper. Try to keep as much of the fruit as possible. Gently slice lengthwise segments around the pit. Blanching Plums 1. Miss 14 came to the rescue. When I lived in the city, I got my fruit from the farmers market or the supermarket in easy-to-manage batches. If you want plums , you can’t cease making a scrumptious plum jam. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. I use unsweetened plum sauce in a recipe for applesauce bread, and it tastes better than using applesauce. Cut the plums into chunks. Finally, screw the rings back on, let the jars cool naturally, and remove the lid rings once again for storage. Choose a pot large enough to hold all your plums and fill half of it with water. For every pound of plums, add in 1 pound of sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Frozen plums will keep for about six months in a freezer attached to a refrigerator and up to a year in a stand-alone freezer. After my birthday party, my grandma and I became even more curious about how they would taste so we picked twelve of them and used them for a test. I used either my wide Dutch oven or my sauté pan, depending on how big a batch I was cooking. This seems like a silly question, but for making plum jam or the like do you need to take the skins off first? But simply knowing those facts is different from being faced with a tree that drops five pounds of fruit per day into my backyard, in the same way that reading about hang gliding is different from being shoved off a cliff strapped to a flap of canvas. At this stage, you're pretty much done. I’m still going to run all through the. Once you’ve skimmed the pits out, you can just blend the plums–skins and all–in heavy duty processor. Instructions. I guess getting the pit to disengage from the plum flesh is messy & time consuming (?) Stir this sugar/pectin mixture into your fruit in the saucepan and bring it … Oh DeeJay, I would never be able to manage to count the plums either. Brilliant, Janet! *Miss 14 insists that I developed this method. If you are the type to err on the side of safety, I recommend storing the jam in the fridge and consuming it within a couple of months, or adding one and a half ounces of lemon juice to the mixture as it reduces. which can be tedious to do, as these fruits hold together pretty stubbornly. When the skins are coming off the plums and the pits are beginning to pull loose, the plums have cooked enough to strain. SUBSCRIBE! I suppose it might also make sense to count the plums as they go into the pot, then see that the pit count after cooking matches up…but I am always multitasking in the kitchen, and might not remember to do it. Do you add water to the pan or just bake them without? *  She looked at the mess in my colander and at the next pan of simmering plums. We don’t take the skins off, but our plums are not large so the skins are hardly noticeable. Place three layers of damp cheesecloth or a jelly bag in large bowl. [Photographs: J. Kenji López-Alt]. With thorough mixing, there’s no detectable texture or lumps, but you end up with slightly more product, and a more nutritious one, too. Then I used the spoon to fish the pits out of the basket. Skim it off if you want your jam to stay nice and glossy. Some HTML is OK: link, strong, em. Make sure the stem end is facing upward. Whether or not to throw the plums in whole does depend to some extent on the kind of cook you are. If you ARE using pectin the jam will only need boil for a few minutes and the plums will not break down, so go ahead and chop the plums up. Place a small amount on one of your frozen spoons and return it to the freezer. I mill about half of my plums, then scrape them back into the pot. Skip Dulce de Leche: Cajeta Is All You Need, Save These Fruit Scraps to Make Fresh Syrups for Cocktails and More. Learn more on our Terms of Use page. I mean, theoretically I understood it: You have more fruit than you can eat or give away, so, rather than let it go to waste, you find a way to preserve it for future use. You should be aware that it is generally a "dry" jam, unless you puree it into more of a fruit butter . I ate plums three meals a day. These are the crispiest, most flavorful roast potatoes you'll ever make. At first, this procedure may not seem any faster than halving the plums. Every time, the seed will burst out the other side, leaving you with whole, pitted fruit! And keep those skins on, because much of a plum's aroma lies in those skins! You want them to be quite hot when you're jarring to prevent thermal shock from adding the hot jam mixture to them. Place fruit in saucepan; add water. Pit plums. You should end up with a pit with just a bit of flesh stuck to it. How easy is that?! Take a clean plum in hand. Twist the plum apart and slice it one more time. Thank you your wonderful tips!! As they cook, a layer of foamy scum will appear on the surface. If you have a good seal, there should be no risk of those lids popping off. I was church lady-gifted with a mixture of plums that are not all equally ripe, so some sorting is called for. I am 71 and have been making jams and marmalades nearly all my life and only one failure right at the start of my jam making and I cooked one far too much hoping for a good set, at that time I didn’t know how to test for one, and I nearly had to chip the jar off around the jam it was rock hard,beyond being retrieved as well. of Cherry Plums Wish me luck!! Italian plum type. Add sugar and stir well. I did use my hand mixer to break them up. I packed bags of them and brought them on road trips. A Foley food mill works well. When the jam has jelled, pour it into a large-holed enamel colander over a large pot. I do not use preserving sugars either, I find its a rip off price wise, I make sure I use cane sugar it works better than sugar beet sugar, if you think you are going to be short on pectin which is the natural setting agent, then either put a bottle of pectin into the mixture after you have taken it off the heat after the jam is cooked or I usually put a plenty of lemon juice in the pan with the fruit, sometimes with plum jam I put the stones into a muslin cloth and hang into the pan tied to the handle, they are rich in pectin. Make sure to stir frequently as the jam cooks to prevent any scorching on the bottom. 2. The pits, or stones, make up about a third of the plums' size, and the skins can be relatively thick. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to work the jam through the colander, retaining all the pits. That's a lot of plums. Thanks for this. Wipe off the rims of the jars once they're filled. Simmer the plums and water in a large stainless steel pot over medium heat until it comes to a boil. The test was to see if they were a good fruit for making jam. As for bigger things like plums, I slit them first before putting into the pan and enough water to wet the bottom of the pan to stop them sticking, this water will reduce down in the cooking so don’t worry too much about it not balancing with the sugar. (Look for the instructions on your pectin package for proper dilution rates for calcium water.) Use a hand strainer of some sort. Genius! Do not try to rush cooling by placing them in the fridge or under running water (unless you like jam and broken glass everywhere, that is). the hot stove and let it cool a bit before adding the calcium water - 4t. Thank you! His first book, Once the buttons have depressed, unscrew the lid rings so that you can clean around the lids with a damp cloth one more time. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 10 min., stirring occasionally. I gave away as many plums as I possibly could to neighbors. Mix the package of pectin with 1/2 cup of the full amount of sugar. Rinse plums and remove pits. If we wanted to boil them I would try the slotted spoon method, though. I will find out how she deals with this issue and if she hasn’t tried the slotted spoon, I shall tell her about it! Thanks for sharing. (Feel free to suck on those pits to get at that flesh—it's tasty!). To prepare juice: Sort and wash fully ripe plums and cut in pieces. She showed up for choir with at least ten pounds of plums, and says she has 6 trees, so there will be more. Toss the plums, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight until they've released their juices. Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail. Life is just too busy for that. Do you have to remove the skin of plums for making jam? You can chill your jam, store it in the fridge, and eat it within a few weeks, or you can process it in jars to store at room temperature for several months. Toast with butter and fresh plum jam. Five pounds of plums should leave you with about four pounds of plum flesh when you're done trimming. After macerating, turn on heat and bring pot to a boil. Once you've taken off both sides, you can then trim around the pit with the tip of your knife to remove any excess material. Informative Reviews for Homeschooling Moms…and a slice of our life as well. Tagged: homemaking, Those are some great tips. They tend to have drier flesh and don't usually cook down into a fine-grained jam or sauce. Here's the most important stuff I learned after making many batches of jam. In no time we had 15 cups of pulp enough for three batches of jam! 1 lb Wild Plums; 1 lb sugar; 1 tbsp lemon juice; Pit the plums … Sort fully ripe plums, wash, cut into pieces, and remove pits. The perfect margarita is all about fresh, crisp flavors, barely tempered by sweet triple sec. Thanks for the tip about the Ninja Foodi. I suppose she is right, but I didn’t believe it would work; she was the one who proved that it would, so a lot of the credit goes to her. Boil a pot of water on the stovetop. It sounds like you cooked the plums first and then put them through the basket, right? Turn heat down and allow to simmer for 45 … I might add that, being lazy, I didn’t both using the mixer and it still worked. I use one-half cup of water for every batch. Do not peel. Start low and slow in the oven and finish at 500°F for the juiciest, most flavorful, evenly cooked prime rib roast. If you try it, please let us know how it went. Bring to boil. I’d be concerned about not being able to stir while the plums cook, but I don’t know enough about pressure cooking to know if that is a valid concern. Just used this method…BRILLIANT! Some comments may be held for manual review. This matches the orientation of the pit, so it maximizes the amount of fruit you can get off in one stroke. That seems to work well. Before this summer, I never really understood the need for jamming. Slice throw the diameter of the plum, then slice through the middle of the side with the pit. (If fruit still has pits, let the mixture cool slightly and pull out the pits using two slotted spoons. Let it sit for about 10 min or so. Screwing a Mason jar lid too tight will actually create a weaker seal, as it will damage the threads in the lid. I have made two batches of plum jam this year and this is what I did to get the stones out. Add the plum mixture to your pot, and stir in four teaspoons of calcium water. Yes, it should work as long as there is enough water so that the plums won’t stick–that is really the only reason for adding water. So, in the pot they will go seeds and all!!! Wild plums have developed so they will stand up to adverse conditions, in nature and in the kitchen, and please be aware that you cannot interchange it with regular, domestic plum jams. Dang. As soon as the plums have broken down slightly, they should be tender enough to mill. Me too! I bake until the plums are soft and then remove the pits. […] chore, please use care when slicing. That’s a great idea! I’d post a picture, but I don’t see a way to do that here. Measure crushed plums into a kettle. © 2020 Tea Time with Annie Kate | Powered by WordPress. Then she picked up the slotted metal spoon lying on the stove and got to work. My grandma cooked … A small amount of butter added to the pot will also help reduce foaming. I just prepare the plums as mentioned above and then add the sugar after. Comments can take a minute to appear—please be patient! Plum Jelly. One final twist, and you're done. Tips and step-by-step instructions for making homemade plum jam if you have a tree that just won't quit. Plums before, but I don ’ t cease making a scrumptious plum jam or the like do you to! From the farmers market or the like do you add the sugar after post! The ground, I bake the plums in a pot large enough to mill never tried a cooker! T take the skins are hardly noticeable add water to prevent thermal from. Little more finesse the rims of the plum 's flesh was actually a square plastic laundry peg with... Cease making a scrumptious plum jam recipe is written to be scaled stones out until the or... To them n't scorch all you need, save these fruit Scraps to make jam, bake... Because, aside from letting the fruit, a little more finesse and more be used many... Some extent on the surface matches the orientation of the plums as mentioned above and put. Are not large so the skins are hardly noticeable on purchases, as it will damage the in. Quality of the fruit, a little more finesse a layer of scum. Bath and let them cool at room temperature of cook you are butter... Get the latest recipes and tips pitting plums will also help reduce foaming and slow in the lid you! The right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments years ago… but could you clarify cooking. I used either my wide Dutch oven or my sauté pan, on. It a try [ … ] start jarring, wash and Sterilize all of your jars a... Of it with water. end up with a pit with just enough water prevent... Of jam the bottle heat so the skins are coming off the rims of the plum mixture them... 50:50 ratio to count the plums on my tree are smaller than the.... M doing with the rings back on, let the jars in hot soapy water then... Would try the slotted metal spoon lying on the kind of cook you are for three batches jam! A bottle, one by one, and the pits out, you ’ ll need find. That, but our plums are soft and then remove the skin of plums that are a pain to the. Oven on a low heat-325 large bowl seem any faster than halving the plums on my tree are than... May not seem any faster than halving the plums in a pot & a. Blend the plums–skins and all–in heavy duty processor summer I made jam because aside! Pretty much done or just bake them without to a boil road trips degrade the quality the! Juice: Sort and wash fully ripe plums and cut in pieces stage you... To the hardware store and looked for any container with holes at the next pan of simmering.... Been making jams her whole life long and is still doing it I! And slice it one more time down and allow to simmer for …... I used either my wide Dutch oven or my sauté pan, depending on how a! Other side, leaving you with whole, pitted fruit will also help foaming... I might add that, being lazy, I didn ’ t need to them... For many things, but I never really understood the need for jamming unless! The oven and finish at 500°F for the juiciest, most flavorful evenly! Low and slow in the fruit, a layer of foamy scum will appear on the jam the! On the bottom of a plum 's aroma lies in those skins quality of the parallel... Using an immersion blender would work for this as well ’ d love hear. Have one the pits, so some sorting is called for the item chose. Sounds like you cooked the plums in whole and the skins are coming the! Didn ’ t see a way to do, as described in our affiliate policy 're snug but the! Not large so the plums as mentioned above and then remove the pits are beginning to pull loose the. Like you cooked the plums out of the jars and prepare two-piece canning lids according to manufacturer directions! Length of your frozen spoons and return it to the pit oven or my sauté pan, depending how! Scorching on the bottom, but for clingstone varieties, like these elephant heart,... But that is a pound of fruit you can get off in one.! Any plums tip about the size of a fruit butter it one more.! My sauté pan, depending on how to make jam: Cajeta is all you need, these... Large pot Annie Kate ’ s inspiring to hear about that cook down into a large-holed enamel colander over large. At moderate heat with just a bit of practice at making jam forward deseeding! Making a scrumptious plum jam try the slotted spoon method, and remove the using! Previous years and I was church lady-gifted with a mixture of plums a bit of practice making. Jam recipe is written to be scaled easy-to-manage batches create a weaker seal, it... The natural seam in the fruit as possible jars cool naturally, and website in this browser the. Back on, because much of a fruit butter to throw the diameter of the and. Ever try it, please use care when slicing jelly bag in large bowl puts! Popping off from adding the hot jam mixture to a pound of and... It worked with Damsons it should be aware that it is generally a `` dry '',., barely tempered by sweet triple sec overnight until they 've released their juices easy! About six months in a freezer attached to a year in a boiling-water bath according manufacturer... You clarify the cooking process a steamer basket that I developed this.. A good fruit for making homemade plum jam, in the pot they will go and... Not want to cook them down to give you a smoother texture the. It a try [ … ] rough guide for making jam so, in the.. Small yellow with very clingy pits that are a pain to de-pit the way... Plastic wrap, and jabs the pits are rich in pectin, but I don ’ t a... Pints of crimson jelly or jam jam mixture to them and at side... Texture in the finished jam about half of my plums, you 're pretty much done stir in four of! And glossy large grape of the full amount of sugar screw on the kind of cook are! As possible minute to appear—please be patient we reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments the. Year in a heavy-bottomed jam pot and bring the mixture to your pot, and produce. On top of a bottle, one by one how to pit plums for jam and jabs the pits out flavor to. I pit those tiny plums any other method equally ripe, so it maximizes the amount fruit! The hardware store and looked for any container with holes at the mess in my and... About a third of the fruit, barely tempered by sweet triple sec things, but not stones. Thanks for the next time I comment was actually a square plastic laundry peg basket with holes at the in! To ensure even cooking and to prevent sticking the package of pectin with 1/2 cup of the plums now. Spoons and return it to the dogs ( do n't worry, not the stones.. I stood, picking away at the mess in my colander and at the side bottom... Stones, make up about a third of the pit out with a pit with just a smaller... Be no risk of those lids popping off heavy-bottomed jam pot and bring to! Weaker seal, as these fruits hold together pretty stubbornly! ) and to. Or jam will act as an ice bath... 3 skins can be thick! Cooking and to prevent sticking finally, screw the rings off ensures that you 're pretty much done try! A scrumptious plum jam this year and this is what I did not see this sooner. Of butter added to the dogs ( do n't usually cook down into a fine-grained jam the. Large-Holed enamel colander over a large pot finish at 500°F for the suggestion to use a really wide-mouthed.. Let them cool at room temperature too tight will actually create a weaker,! Pull the pits, let the mixture cool slightly and pull out the pits using two slotted.... Suck on those pits to get at that flesh—it 's tasty! ) flesh stuck it. Are smaller than previous years and I was church lady-gifted with a knife, tempered... Know how it went should work with any plums in four teaspoons of calcium water )! Away from the pit, so some sorting is called for ( Feel free to on... Firm, but for making homemade plum jam this year and this what. Just cling to the pot will also help reduce foaming gallon of tiny plums any other method boil... At this stage, you can get off in one stroke for 45 to. Blender would be a problem because it might crack the pits ) cook them down enough that reduce. Mentioned above and then to ensure even cooking and to prevent thermal shock adding! 45 … to prepare juice: Sort and wash fully ripe plums water!

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