Victoria Plum Jam

We are hoping to produce our own line of homemade jams for The Foodie Bugle Shop, and John-Paul has always been a very keen preserver. We are trialling lots of different recipes from Good Housekeeping, to Delia Smith, Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson {our favourite cookery books – authors} at the moment, and luckily our orchard is producing an abundant crop this year.

Our Victoria plum tree is heavy with fruit, but we don’t wait for the plums to ripen. By that time it would be too late as all the wasps would have eaten the fruit. In addition, this means that pectin levels are higher, which is important in jam making.

So we pick them and make jam when the fruit is still quite hard.

For this recipe you will need enough jam jars to be able to preserve 4.5 kg. of jam. That is a lot but it will stand you in good stead over the winter months – think hot sourdough toast and butter with plum jam, jammy dodgers, jammy bread and butter pudding, jam tarts, Victoria sponge cakes…

Ingredients

2.7kg of plums, washed and stalk removed

900ml water

2.7kg granulated sugar

Method

Put a clean saucer in the freezer. Hot wash and then sterilise the jam jars, by placing in a warm oven, at 140 degrees Celsius, for half an hour.

Place the plums {whole} and water in a maslin pan and simmer for 30 minutes. The fruit should become soft and the contents much reduced.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the sugar and stir well till dissolved.

Bring the liquid to the boil and continue to boil for 10-15 minutes, stirring.

Test for a seal: spoon a little of the jam on the cold saucer and push your finger against it. If the jam goes crinkly-wrinkly, it is solid enough and the set is reached. Take the pan off the heat.

Using a slotted spoon remove the stones and any scum from the surface. Leave to stand for 15 minutes.

Ladle the jam into the clean, warm jars, then cover with the lid and label.