Plum Jam

Some more jars squirrelled away for the autumn store

Ingredients

1.5kg of plums (Victoria, Greengage etc)
1.25 kg of sugar
400ml of water

Method
Chop and halve the plums removing the stones. If you wish you can crack open some of the stones to obtain the kernels, dipping them in hot water to remove the reddish brown skin leaving you with a little white nut. These can be added to the jam if so wished - adding them will give an almond flavour to the jam.

Put the plums and 400 ml of water into a maslin pan (jam pan) and cook the fruit until soft and pulpy and the skins soft. This is important as adding sugar to the mixture where the skins are tough will only make them harder. This should take about 25 to 30 minutes.

Add the sugar and stir until it is all dissolved, then bring to the boil boiling rapidly until setting point is reached (i.e when you put a spot of jam onto a saucer that has been put in the fridge and it wrinkles when you push it with your finger if it is runny you haven't achieved setting point. Once setting point is reached take pan off heat. I use a heatproof jug and a ladle for getting out of the pan and decanting into hot sterilised jars. Seal with lids wipe down any spills with a damp cloth and leave to cool. Label and store

The recipe states it will make approximately 7 jars of jam- I got 6 and a half jars from this quantity. And it is yummy.