easy method for plum jam?

17 years ago

We have a santa rosa plum tree in our yard, and are expecting the harvest in about a month. I'd like to make jam this year, but want to find a method that doesn't require pitting the plums in advance (I have two kids and not enough time to pit zillions of plums). Somebody mentioned using a food mill to separate the pits after cooking the plums into a sauce. Does anybody have experience with a method like this? I don't need an exact recipe, just confirmation that it works before I invest in a food mill. Thanks!

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rlegates
Original Author

17 years ago

I found a method that works beautifully!

Cut the plums in half, roughly, but don't bother pitting or peeling them. Cook according to your favorite jam recipe (the fruit will cook off the pits). When the jam has jelled, pour it into a large-holed enamel colander over a large pot. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to work the jam through the colander, retaining all the pits. Ladle pit-free jam into jars, etc.

It can be a bit messy, but it's much easier and faster than pitting all the plums beforehand. Three dozen jars and counting...

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Comments (8)

lindac
17 years ago
I can't see how a food mill wouold work for plum pits....perhaps one of those "chinese hat" things would after the fruit was cooked...
I just pit the plums....cook them up, measure, add equal amount of sugar to plum pulp, cook to jell stage and call it jam.
Linda C
canarybird01
17 years ago
My mom used to make small quantities of plum fridge jam by splitting a few plums and laying them on a roasting pan or cookie sheet and baking them in the oven until they were all jammy. Then scraping them into a jar or two to keep in the fridge for fast-use jam. I don't think she added sugar either.
That was easy and I guess she just didn't put the pits in the jars with the cooked plum.

SharonCb
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Thank you for the advice and reassurance :) I tried it last night ... turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! It is one of my first jams so I was fairly happy that it worked. I made 8 cups of fruit, and only used 1 package of pectin (which is only half what they recommend) but I figured that plums are a high-pectin fruit apparently and can be used without any pectin ... so I only put enough for the cherries. It "set" really well so I guess that was ok. I used basically the recipe I posted above except only 2 cups of sugar. It is certainly sweet enough like that but I was just worried because the sugar is meant to be the preservative, and I wanted there to be enough to be safe to store. If I used 2 cups of sugar with no-sugar-needed pectin and 8 cups of fruit, how long will it last on a shelf? Regular Jams usually seems to last a couple years, would this reduced-sugar option be less? I used allspice which was really nice with the plums and cherries. Tastes more like a fall jam than a summer one but that's ok ... it will keep till then. Next time I will try vanilla, that sounds incredible too!! Liqueurs are a great idea too, I hadn't even though of that aside from the Red Wine that was in one recipe I found. Thanks! I only had ground allspice but I understand what you mean about the cloudy jam ... mine doesn't seem to be (yet) but I will definitely keep that in mind and look for whole spices that can be removed :) So if I was going to use Sugar instead of Fruit Juice, would I just substitute it 1:1 Cup? The cherries seemed to be juicy enough without much added liquid so I don't think I'd need the juice for liquid. Next up (tonight hopefully) is Raspberry - Lemon Jam. Again, high pectin fruits so will try using 8 cups of fruit and only 1 pkg of no-sugar-needed pectin with 2 cups of sugar. Raspberries are pretty juicy too, I think.
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denise8101214
17 years ago
I have tried just splitting the plums and throwing them in the pot to cook with the pits and fishing them out later. It is easier to just pit them first.
lpinkmountain
17 years ago
I made plum jam one year with itty bitty (but very tasty) yellow plums and it WAS a pain to pit them. I had a friend over and we did it together. The jam was fab BTW. That's why back in the day when people grew and/or preserved most of their own food, folks had lots of kids, lol! And that's why later when all those kids grew up they couldn't WAIT to buy the latest convenience food!
:)
Sorry I can't offer better advice, just sympathy!
Gardenweb has a "Harvest" forum, perhaps you could try posting the question there.
annie1992
17 years ago
I can't see how a food mill would take the pits out of plums either. I have a Squeezo, which is the stainless steel and industrial size VillaWare and it doesn't work well for pitting cherries, it would never handle plum pits.

Sorry.....

Annie
CA Kate z9
17 years ago
I recently made some Aprium Jam by roasting the whole apriums. I ended up fishing out the pits by hand because they were clogging up the Foley Mill. It would have been a lot less messy to have just removed the pits at the start.
cora51
7 years ago
I just wash my plums and throw them in a large stockpot to slowly simmer. No water necessary as Santa Rosas or red plums are so juicy. When softened the pit falls away and I just strain it through a colander then a small sieve into another bowl. Pits are discarded to compost and pulp used to make jams, chutneys, Asian plum sauce or dessert purées. No patience with cutting up fruit! I haven’t tried a food mill ad I imagine pits are too big.

easy method for plum jam?

rlegates
Original Author

Comments (8)

lindac

canarybird01

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easy method for plum jam?

rlegatesOriginal Author

Comments (8)

lindac

canarybird01

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denise8101214

lpinkmountain

annie1992

CA Kate z9

cora51

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rlegates
Original Author