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Monday, October 6, 2025

Straightforward Plum Jam Recipe | Diethood


That is my simple selfmade plum jam recipe made with recent plums, aromatic cardamom pods, and sugar. Three elements are all you want, and no pectin! I’ll additionally present you protect this juicy, old school plum jam utilizing my grandmother’s no-fuss canning technique.

Plum jam makes a terrific addition to cheese boards, and I like spreading it on every thing from dinner rolls with butter to silver greenback pancakes.

Straightforward Plum Jam Recipe | Diethood

 

Enjoyable truth: We now have somewhat fruit orchard in our yard. It’s the place we develop pears, peaches, quince, grapes (that I stomp myself to make wine!), and the most important, juiciest plums. After I’m not baking these plums into plum cake, I’m turning them into jam utilizing my household’s plum jam recipe.

This selfmade plum jam is so particular. It’s spiced with cardamom, tangy-sweet, and spreadable. Excellent with a piece of brie cheese and heat selfmade bread on the aspect.

Why I Know You’ll Love This Plum Jam Recipe

  • No peeling or pectin. You don’t have to peel the plums or add pectin to your jam.
  • Newbie-friendly. It is a nice small-batch plum jam recipe for rookies. My grandmother taught me make her strawberry jam utilizing an identical technique. It’s all however foolproof.
  • No particular tools. You don’t want any water baths or preserving pans for this recipe. You will have canning jars when you plan to protect your jam.
  • Canning is non-obligatory. I embody my fast technique for canning jam at house utilizing the oven. It’s an non-obligatory step, however nice when you’d prefer to protect this plum jam for pantry storage, since this recipe makes about 4 to five cups of jam.
Plum jam ingredients with text labels overlaying each ingredient.

Collect Your Jam Components

I’ve made this plum jam with solely recent plums, sugar, and water, and it’s scrumptious! Sooner or later, I added cardamom pods, and the scent was heavenly. They’ve stayed a part of my recipe ever since. 

  • Contemporary Ripe Plums – Choose up plums from the farmer’s market, or, when you’re fortunate sufficient to develop your personal, you may decide them recent. Nearly any kind of plum works on this recipe. Japanese plums are sometimes what you’ll discover in shops, and Damson plums are my private favorites for jam. However you can also make wild plum jam or use any out there selection.
  • Cardamom Pods – I desire utilizing complete inexperienced cardamom pods. If cardamom isn’t out there, you may substitute the pods with a tablespoon of nutmeg, or this plum jam recipe nonetheless tastes superb with out it.
  • Sugar – Many jam recipes go pound-for-pound with their fruit and sugar (i.e., 1 pound of sugar for each 1 pound of plums within the recipe). I take advantage of much less sugar in my plum jam; nonetheless, when you like a sweeter jam, be happy so as to add as much as 1 further cup of sugar.

Non-compulsory Add-ins and Variations

  • Lemon juice. Lemon juice may also help thicken and protect the jam whereas brightening up the flavors. I don’t embody it, however you may add as much as 1 giant lemon’s value of juice to your jam, to style.
  • Heat spices. Add recent or floor ginger, or make a spiced plum jam with cinnamon and cloves. You may pressure out elements like cinnamon sticks and complete cloves with the cardamom pods.
  • Fruit blends. Attempt plum and apricot jam, or make plum and apple jam with sweet-tart apples, like Granny Smith and Honeycrisp.
  • Honey. You may sweeten this plum jam with honey as an alternative of sugar. You’ll want barely much less, about ¾ cup of honey for each 1 cup of sugar.
A spoon in a jar lifting out plum jam.

Serving Ideas

Plum jam goes properly with cheese, desserts, and breakfast. I like smearing recent plum jam over slices of zucchini bread with a cortado espresso within the morning, or I’ll use it as a topping for pancakes. However don’t cease there. These are just some simple methods to make use of plum jam:

  • As a ramification. Unfold this selfmade plum jam on toast, croissants, or biscuits. Attempt it with a grilled cheese or feta-stuffed Macedonian dinner rolls (kifli) for a candy and savory combo!
  • Baking recipes. Plum jam makes a scrumptious filling for desserts like desserts, kolacky cookies, and muffins.
  • Cheese boards. Candy-tart plum jam is a superb cheese board pairing with delicate and sharp cheeses like goat cheese, gorgonzola, cream cheese, brie, and cheddar.
  • As a glaze for meats. Use your plum jam in savory recipes, like pork medallions or roast pork loin brushed with plum jam glaze.
Three jars of jam set on a table with plums scattered around them.
  • Stockpot – I take advantage of a heavy 6-quart stockpot. You may prepare dinner jam in the identical stockpot you’d use to boil pasta (nothing fancy).
  • Picket Spoon – For stirring. Picket spoons have antibacterial properties and don’t conduct warmth, which might have an effect on the feel of the jam.
  • Colander – For straining the plum combination.
  • Canning Jars with Lids – Since I’ll present you sterilize jars within the oven, the jars should be oven-proof.

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  • Put together the plums. Place the rinsed and destemmed plums in a 6-quart stockpot. Stir within the water and the cardamom pods.

  • Boil. Prepare dinner over medium warmth and convey to a boil; scale back the warmth to low and simmer for 1 hour. Take away from warmth and permit the plums to fully cool.

  • Pressure. Place a colander on high of a giant, deep bowl. As soon as the plums have cooled, pour them into the colander. Press the plums together with your fingers or a big picket spoon in opposition to the colander to pressure them.

  • Squeeze out the pulp. Choose up the remaining fruit slurry within the colander by the handfuls and squeeze the pulp, skins, and cardamom seeds into the bowl with the syrup, retaining the pits and cardamom shells after which discarding them.

  • Prepare dinner the jam. Put the plum combination again into the stockpot, stir within the sugar, style for sweetness, regulate if wanted, and convey the combination to a boil over medium-low warmth. Flip the warmth right down to low and let it simmer for 3 hours, or till the combination has thickened. Stir it each 20 to half-hour.

Canning Plum Jam

  • Prep. Preheat oven to 200°F.

  • Warmth the jars. Wash the jars with cleaning soap and water, dry them, and place them mouth aspect up, with out lids, within the oven for 10 minutes.

  • Sterilize the lids. Sterilize the lids by placing them in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them. Permit to dry.

  • Fill the jars. Spoon the new plum jam into the new, sterilized jars and seal. Permit jars to chill to room temperature.

Yield. From 3 kilos of plums, count on about 4 to five cups of jam, relying on how juicy the fruit is and the way a lot it reduces because it cooks. As a result of sugar and somewhat water are added, the ultimate quantity doesn’t shrink down to only the fruit pulp.
Storage. Retailer canned plum jam in a cool, darkish pantry for six–12 months. As soon as opened, refrigerate and use inside 2 weeks, checking for any indicators of spoilage earlier than serving.

Serving: 0.25cup | Energy: 137kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 0g | Fats: 0g | Saturated Fats: 0g | Ldl cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 0mg | Potassium: 139mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 295IU | Vitamin C: 8.2mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 0.2mg

Dietary information is an estimate and offered as courtesy. Values might differ in response to the elements and instruments used. Please use your most popular dietary calculator for extra detailed information.

The best way to Make Plum Jam

It takes a little bit of endurance to make plum jam, however my household’s jam recipe is as foolproof because it will get. The range does many of the work. Plus, the extra jams and preserves you make from scratch, the higher you’ll be at it. Right here’s a have a look at the steps to set your self up for fulfillment:

  • Put together the plums. Wash the plums properly and take away the stems. Don’t pit the plums at this stage. Fairly, you’ll boil the fruit and press out the pits later. So, add the plums complete to your stockpot.
  • Boil the plums. Subsequent, pour water over the plums and stir within the cardamom pods. Convey the pot to a boil over medium warmth, then decrease the warmth and simmer the plums for 1 hour. Take them off the warmth afterward and permit the plums to chill fully.
  • Pressure. When the plums are cool, pressure them over a colander set over a deep bowl. Now, for the messy bit! Utilizing your fingers, press the plums down by the colander. Then, squeeze the leftover pulp by the handful. You need to press the pulp, skins, and cardamom seeds into the bowl beneath, whereas leaving the plum pits and cardamom shells within the colander to be discarded.
  • Prepare dinner the jam. Return your plum combination to the stockpot. Now, you’ll stir within the sugar and convey the jam to a boil over medium-low warmth. Then, decrease the warmth and permit the jam to prepare dinner for 3 hours, stirring each half-hour or so, till thick.

How Lengthy to Prepare dinner Jam

The easiest way to inform when your plum jam is prepared is to carry out a setting take a look at. Chill a plate within the freezer. Dollop a spoonful of jam on the chilly plate and let it sit for a minute. Then, gently cross the tip of your finger by the jam. If it wrinkles and gels, it’s prepared! If the jam appears free and liquid, it’s an indication that it must prepare dinner longer. Retest the jam each jiffy till it passes.

A spoon in a jar of plum jam with fresh plums in the background.

Canning Plum Jam, Step-by-Step

As soon as the jam has thickened to the correct consistency, you may select the way you’d prefer to retailer it. With out canning, recent selfmade plum jam lasts within the fridge for about one month. For long-term pantry storage, right here’s protect plum jam in jars:

  1. Prep. Preheat your oven to 200°F. Wash the jars totally with cleaning soap and water, after which dry them. 
  2. Warmth the jars. Organize the jars contained in the oven, mouths dealing with up and lids off. Warmth the jars for 10 minutes.
  3. In the meantime, sterilize the lids. Pour boiling water over the jar lids in a heatproof bowl. Afterward, enable the lids to dry.
  4. Can the jam. When you’re prepared, spoon the new plum jam into the new, sterilized jars and seal them tightly. Go away the jam jars to chill to room temperature.

Our household pantry is stocked with jams, fruit preserves, and purple pepper relish yearly! Correctly sealed and preserved plum jam will final in a cool, dry place, like a pantry, for as much as 12 months. In fact, at all times examine your jars once you open them. If one thing smells off or seems discolored, discard the jar for security’s sake.

Storage and Shelf-Life

  • Pantry storage. Canned plum jam could be stored within the pantry out of direct warmth or daylight for 6-12 months.
  • Refrigerate after opening. Maintain any cans of jam refrigerated after opening. Plum jam lasts within the fridge for a few weeks. All the time verify the jam for indicators of spoilage earlier than serving.

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