I don't have a jam recipe book yet so I turned to the internet and found a fairly simple recipe with a ratio for ingredients from the Canning USA website. I decided to use this recipe without adding pectin as I read that plums have a naturally high pectin content.
Of course with any first try... I promptly did it wrong! But the jam still worked out really well and is sweet and delicious to our taste. If I had followed the recipe better perhaps it would have been overly sweet??
2lb of plums makes about this much jam I used 2lb of pitted plums, 2 cups of sugar, 4tbsp water and 2tbsp lemon juice. I followed the rest of the instructions reasonably well, heating to the right temperatures using my new candy thermometer and I tried to check the liquid for a "thick syrup" but then decided I didn't really know what I was looking at and it tasted good so I would bottle it and see.
It was quite fun watching the stewed fruit jam go into the bottles and putting the seals on then watching the plastic tighten up as the jam cooled.
Second batch I used the same amount of sugar but included a 50g packet of "Jam Setta". I also cut each halved plum into 3 instead of leaving them as halves. This made a slightly thicker jam which was a little easier to spread but still had the same great flavour.
You get about the same amount of jam as you have fruit. So 2lb of fruit made a little under 1kg of jam. I like the size of used 190g pesto jars best for bottling the jam.
Of course the best way to sample freshly made jam is with freshly made scones!
Homemade scones and jam... time to buy a cow and make my own cream?
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