Damson Plum Jam

From: Chef #1381119

On Sep 11, 2009

This recipe worked, especially the cooling the cooked jam and then finding the seeds. I put on gloves and then just squeezed the pulp out and it worked pretty well. Thank you for the recipe

From: Chef #878178

On Jul 18, 2008

I made this jam today and the major problem I had was getting the 'set'. Removing the pits was also a major headache and I used a sieve plus fingers in the end! Eventually, after boiling hard for 45 mins, I gave up and bottled the jam and its cooled to a semi solid consistency. Hugely labour intensive and, in all honesty, I probably won't do it again but the recipe was easy to follow - just the end result not as good as I would have liked.

From: Chef #975885

On Jan 20, 2009

I agree with you on most every point. It IS the best jam in the world if it's not over-sweetened, which yours doesn't seem to be. (Though I'm not sure what you mean by 2 litres of plums. Is that whole plums or the puree?) I do batches of 4-5 pounds of fresh plums, cook them in only ~1/2 cup of water (they start exuding their own moisture so quickly, and the more water, the longer it takes to cook the jam down. To this ~8-9 cups of pulp I add only 4-5 cups sugar--the greater amt. if many of the plums are barely ripe and very tart. I heartily agree with your method of removing the pits. It's the easiest way to seed them, and with almost no waste. A food mill is a disaster and trying to seed them raw takes forever and you’ll probably cut your slippery fingers. Put a little bowl close by. Reach into the cooled pulp with one hand and feel for seeds (they're mostly on the bottom), press them w/fingertips--to rub off clinging flesh--one at a time into the fingers of your other hand to drop in bowl. (You’ll get the hang of it. Kinda fun, actually, and doesn't take but 5-10 minutes.) (If I look at the bowl of removed seeds and think too much pulp is clinging to them, I pour about 1/4 cup boiling water over them, rub them around in it to loosen the flesh, pour it all into a mesh strainer over the pot and press out every delicious drop. ) Maybe the reviewer who thought this a "major headache" should consider that this is all one has to do to to tidy little Damsons: no peeling, coring, straining out fine seeds (with lots of waste) as with blackberries. They are almost never bruised, I've never seen insect signs on a single one. A bird nip or two on the tops of a handful, but the birds apparently don't like them because they stop with a nip. I gave your recipe 4 stars and not 5 because I can't imagine why you would put the pulp through a food mill? The delicate shreds of tender skin give the jam an exquisite texture and the pectin is concentrated in the peel. One more thing: I find the sheeting-from-spoon test to be less reliable than keeping 2-3 small saucers in the freezer and testing by the way the jam mounds & if the "Red Sea" stays "parted" when you run a finger through the mound. Thanks for some good tips. Damson's are getting almost impossible to buy in the NE USA, and I live in fear that every year will be the last I can locate some.

From: Yankiwi

On Mar 8, 2009

This was the first jam ever made by my DH and me from 3.5 kilograms of Damson plums given to us by our in laws. The recipe was easy to follow even for neophytes like us. We did make one phone call to the in laws to clarify the bottling part. We ended up with seven 500 ml jars of delicious jam which will last us a long time. Thanks for the recipe.