RECIPE: Plum Sauce (canning)

20 years ago

Here's a recipe I worked on for a little while, I wasn't satisfied with any of the recipes I found on the internet for Plum Sauce and pulled this together for myself. Some ingredients aren't "authentic", but I liked the idea of the combination of some of the flavours I included. This is a good recipe to use if you've got some fruit that seems a bit on the sour side or isn't quite ripe, tart fruit works best with the other ingredients. If your fruit seems sweet, feel free to cut back on the brown sugar or increase the amount of rice vinegar to keep it balanced. The fruit and onion can be rough chopped, it'll all go in the blender after it's cooked down, so piece size doesn't matter initially. You can make this as spicy as you like by adding more chili powder and/or white pepper to suit.

Plum Sauce

8 c chopped fruit (can be Italian plums, or combo of plums, apricots, peaches, etc)

1 c chopped onion

1-1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c yellow raisins

1/2 c dark molasses

1/2 c rice vinegar

1/2 c orange juice

1/2 c water

1/3 c soy sauce

1/3 c teriyaki sauce

1 lemon, juice and zest of

2 T minced garlic

2 T minced ginger

1-1/2 T Chinese 5 Spice

1 to 2 tsp salt, to taste

1/2 tsp ground white pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp vanilla

Combine all in pot, bring slowly up to simmer, stirring frequently to prevent from sticking to bottom of pot. Simmer 45-60 minutes, uncovered, stirring; mixture will be reduced by nearly half. Cool slightly and put mixture in blender (working in batches if necessary) to puree. Can put through food mill or sieve instead. Return mixture to pot and bring back up to low simmer and test for desired taste. Add more salt, chili powder, white pepper at this stage if needed to balance to your tastes. Fill sterilized desired size jars, leaving about 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process jars in pressure canner. 20 minutes at 11 pounds for pints and half-pints.

Quantity will depend upon juiciness of fruit, how much you reduce your sauce, etc. I got about 9 half-pints total. I've been making half-pints to give away and pints for me to keep. :) Can be used for duck, chicken, pork, dipping sauce for eggrolls, chicken drummettes, a dollop in homemade salad dressing, you name it and the sky's the limit.

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Comments (4)

KatieC
20 years ago
Yummm...this looks good. Vanilla...huh...never though of that. And molasses. Yummmmm.

I think, considering the ratio of low acid vegies to rice vinegar (you might want to check the strength...my last rice vinegar was 6%), lemon juice and orange juice, that this is safe to waterbath. I'd wb it for 20 minutes at 0-1000 ft., 25 minutes at 1001-6000 ft., or 30 minutes above 6000 ft.

Here's my reasoning: The USDA Chile-Salsa recipe I use has 1 cup 5% strength vinegar to 10 cups low acid vegies, and the tomatoes are borderline, acidity-wise. This recipe has higher acid fruits, and maybe 1-1/4 cups low acid vegies to 1/2 cup rice vinegar, about 1/4 cup lemon juice, and the OJ. Since this is not a USDA tested recipe, my opinion is entirely my own :) And, I'm having dinner with my old boss/MFP instructor on Saturday, I'll run it (unofficially, since she's retired) by her. She's gonna looove this recipe...

Moto, wow, you are one safe canner. You don't really need to bother sterilizing jars unless they are to be processed in a boiling water bath for less than 10 minutes. Sterilizing is now considered an 'extra measure of safety'. Not that that's a bad thing...just more work.

Sorry, I just got back from 8 hours of food safety discussions at the county fair....judging day! And I guess I'm still in Canny Camp mode, hehe.
motochick
Original Author
20 years ago
Hey there, katiec!

I'm glad you voiced an opinion on the water bath. In fact, my first batch of it was a water bath but I got to thinking (too much I suppose) about it afterwards. The lemon juice isn't much to really count and I wasn't 100% positive that the orange juice acidic enough to count, so I wanted to be on the safe side with that onion in there (plus the first batch I had a smidge of sesame oil, which I've subsequently dropped from the recipe). I figured I'd look at it similarly to spaghetti sauce, etc. My intent is to try a batch with bumping up that rice vinegar to a full cup and see how it tastes, then water bath it. It's on that To-Do list. :) But I chickened out on that first batch just being a water bath batch.

I just am in the habit of sterilizing jars because they reside in the garage and I throw them in the dishwasher, then I warm them in a boiling water bath. By the time other things are lined up, they've been in for the same amount of time as a sterilize, lol.

The vanilla, raisins, and the molasses was from BBQ sauce inspiration. The way I looked at it, it's very similar to a BBQ sauce, just different fruits (tomatoes vs plums) and different seasonsings.

I have another fruit option too, I picked up a bunch of pluots today. The first batch I made was with a combo of Italian plums and apricots, heavy on the plums, so I figured logically that the taste would be similar with the pluots, can't wait to give it a go.
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lpinkmountain
20 years ago
I'm like you too moto, I sterilize my jars even though I know it's not necessary, for the same reason, just an extra fastidious habit that I started out canning with and don't see the need to break. My jars live down in the basement for storage, and it's really no trouble to boil them compared to running the dishwasher just for jars. Problem is, my jars come out white with calcium residue in this hard water area where I live.
jessyf
20 years ago
lpink I can send you a small bag of sodium tripolyphosphate (YES the evil phosphates that are, ahem, all over other products in your house like dishwashing powder, toothpaste, etc.) that will help with the calcium residue.