Jam is SO easy! Just sugar and fruit in almost equal quantities (more fruit). A little water if you're worried it all might burn, a squeeze of lemon juice if you think it isn't going to jell. But it will. Don't walk away from your jam - keep a good watch on it, stir from time to time to prevent it from sticking or burning, reduce heat if you're worried about it burning dry.

To test your jam: while preparing the fruit, put a small plate in the fridge to thoroughly chill. Close to the end of cooking time, when the mixture starts looking like jam, begin testing. Put a small amount of jam onto the cooled plate, wait a few seconds for it to cool, then use your finger to push it around. If it wrinkles up and stays together, it's ready for bottling. If it's still a bit watery, continue cooking. Test about every minute towards the end.

If your jam, once bottled and cool, is a bit on the firm side, put it back into a saucepan with a bit of boiling water. Bring to the boil while stirring, and rebottle. Easy as that.

Here's an ancient recipe for you. I wouldn't worry about the paraffin. Just bottle and seal, or if you prefer, HWB.

Plum Jam
You will need 340g sugar for every 450g plums. Wash and dry, stone and weight the plums and cut into halves or quarters. Put into a large saucepan, cover with the sugar. Stir well and leave for 24 hours. Next day, slowly bring the mixture to the boil, stirring with a wooden spoon at short intervals until the sugar starts to dissolve. When boiling point is reached, reduce heat and simmer on low until the mixture gels when tested. Stir in 2 teaspoons margarine. Bottle in sterilised jars while still hot and seal with paraffin wax. If liked, add 1 tablespoon chopped glace ginger and 1 tablespoon green ginger wine for every 500g of jam to the mixture when beginning to cook.

Honey Plum Jam (this jam only keeps for about 2 weeks)
3 cups pitted, coarsely chopped purple plums (about 500g)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey

Combine the plums, sugar, water and lemon juice in saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, but maintain boil. Stir and mash occasionally with back of spoon for about 15 minutes, or until thickened. Remove from heat, stir in honey. Allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate in tightly covered jars for up to 2 weeks.

As for the wormy plums, you COULD use them. There will be eggs in the fruit, as well as grubs, but they'll end up boiled to death and probably won't hurt you. I admit to being a little squeamish, however, and I'd discard any wormy fruit.

I'd also discard any worms, LOL. I'd wash the fruit well and cut out any parts that are wormy, but I don't see any reason to not make jam of the rest. Anything there will be cooked and I will remind you that people eat insects in other parts of the world with no apparent ill effects.

As Daisy said, jam is fruit and sugar, I add the juice and pulp of a fresh lemon usually, both for the pectin and for the lemon's ability to keep fruit brightly colored instead of turning so brown.

If you'd rather make a recipe with commercial pectin, the Sure Jell package has recipes inside and they have all been tested. They do contain an inordinate amount of sugar, though.

I'll look for a plum jam recipe and post later, when I find it. We don't get many plums here and what I do get I turn into KatieC's plum sauce.

Annie

Hi, I have made plum jam twice, recipes below. Both times it was a bit runny, but it tastes great. I used 2 different pectins, but both were the powdered bulk stuff from Amish stores. I would recommend you use Ball's No Sugar Needed Pectin for a firm set with less sugar. I don't like the jam that is half or more sugar.

This is my hubby's favorite of all the kinds of jam I make. I put the grape juice in for natural sugar and pectin. Plain old plums and sugar and pectin would probably do it as well. Most pectins you buy would give recipes, but as I said I wouldn't go for regular pectin as it won't give you a good set unless you use heaps of sugar. Pomona pectin is great for low sugar jam but you need to order that online.

Marcia

Plum Jam 8/16/04

5 c plums
2 1/2c sugar
1 cubes lime juice (1.5 Tbs)
1/2c grape juice
1/3c pectin
package instructions

Plum Jam 5/2/05

16 c plums
6 1/2c sugar
4 cubes lime juice (~6 Tbs)
1 c big red grapes
10 Tbs pectin
After boiling for about 12 min. added pectin and sugar. Cooked about 5 min., processed for 5 min., made 8 pints +

> I'd also discard any worms, LOL. I'd wash the fruit well and cut out any parts that are wormy, but I don't see any reason to not make jam of the rest. Anything there will be cooked and I will remind you that people eat insects in other parts of the world with no apparent ill effects.

Not to mention that there are sure to be, like it or not, teeny insect bits & eggs in any commercially made fruit product; if we think major food companies throw out the whole plum because it has a womy bit, we're sadly mistaken!

Good luck with your jam, pandamania. I started canning just a few years ago and with the help of this forum found it wonderfully easy and so much fun! (I saw you on the tomato forum --- wait till the tom harvest is in and you can really go crazy with canning!)

One note: daisyduckworth mentions you can just bottle & seal. Earlier discussions on this forum have elicited the cultural difference that in the U.K., jams are usually simply sealed by placing into hot jars & inverting, whereas any recipes you get from trusted sources in North America will call for a 5-minute boiling water bath for jams.

Many folks here have opined that the BWB increases the chances of getting all the jars to seal and stay sealed, and ensuring no moulds grow in the jam. Others have argued that it's an unnecessary step inserted by paranoid American bureacracies. ;-) Hopefully this thread won't become another repeat of this debate, which has been had here several times, but I wanted to give you a head's up as to why the different processing suggestions.

Everyone here agrees that plum jam is easy and tasty, so go for it!

Best wishes,

Zabby

There are several safe methods of protecting the tree from worms. These are usually there by some kind of bug that pierces the skins and lays eggs. There is a plum bug specific to this problem. Because you don't know whether there are also insect eggs in them, it may not be as appealing as you may want.

Just for a change of pace, here are a couple of plum conserves. The second one is from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, should anyone have a question about canning the nuts.

Plum Conserve Recipe

6 cups peeled, sliced plums
4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cut up pineapples
1 large lemon, finely chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts

6 half pints

Combine plums and sugar, let stand until juice forms-about 1 hour. Combine plum mixture, pineapple and lemon in a 6 quart or larger pot. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until thick-around 40 minutes, or until the jell point.
Remove from heat and stir in nuts.

Quickly ladle into clean, hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process in a boiling water bath 15 minutes at altitudes up to 1000 feet.

Plum Conserve

2 1/2 quarts chiopped, pitted plums (about 4½ pounds)
3/4 cup thinly sliced orange peel
2 cups seedless raisins
1 3/4 cups chopped orange pulp (about 2 large oranges)
6 cups sugar
2 cups broken pecans or other nuts

Yield: About 10 half-pint jars

Procedure: Sterilize canning jars. Combine plums, orange pulp and peel, raisins, and sugar; slowly bring to boiling, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Cook rapidly, about 15 to 20 minutes, almost to the jellying point (which is 8°F above the boiling point of water, or 220°F at sea level). As the mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Add nuts during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Pour the hot conserve into hot, sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel; adjust two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a Boiling Water Canner 10 minutes for pints or half pints.

Annie

Wow thanks everyone. This forum is so helpful. I will make plum jam this summer and eat it (worms and all. NOT!).

Do the best you can with the worms. I LOVE plum jam, think it is one of the best kinds of jam. I'm not crazy about eating fresh plums, that fruit seems made for jam in my book.

My father used to put large marbles in the pot as the jam was being boiled has any one heard of this Questions
1/ what size does the marble / tom bowler need to be?

2/ can a marblew meklt in the jam making process