Plum+Cherry = Tart+Sweet
We stopped by a local farm stand the other day and definitely went overboard on the amount of fresh fruit I decided just had to come home with us. I am all for providing a loving home for any farm fresh fruits and veggies! After a few days we still had a bunch of plums and sweet cherries that I knew we would never be able to finish on our own. So I tried my hand at making stone fruit jam that was sure-jell free.
A stone fruit jam is a jam made out of a mix of any combination of stone fruits (fruit with a pit). I mixed two different types of plums and two different types of cherries to make one tart and sweet jam. I also cut the recipe down since I only had two pounds of fruit. Two pounds of fruit yielded 2 full 8oz jars and one almost full 8oz jar of jam.
I started with weighing out my fruit. I bought my first food scale* about 3 weeks ago, I never thought I would use one…I was very wrong. Now that I have the scale I use it for almost everything. If you are in the market for a new food scale, I highly recommend one with the option to reset zero. that way you can place a heavy bowl on the scale, reset to zero and then fill it with your fruit, its so much faster than having to subtract the weight of your bowl.
After you have weighed your fruit it is time for the messy part. Pitting and slicing up cherries and plums. The nice thing about making jam is it doesn’t have to look nice. I used a corer for removing the pit of each plum and my fingers to pull apart the cherries. It was time consuming and messy, but the end result was definitely worth the trouble. Once you place all your ingredients in the pot and bring it to a boil you will have to stir it often for two reasons. One, so your fruit mixture doesn’t burn to the bottom of your pot. Two, so your fruit mixture doesn’t boil over. A sticky fruit liquid that boils over will not only start a small kitchen fire, but it will also be a mess to clean up. Trust me.
Some people like to scum the top of their jam while they cook. I felt like with this jam it was just too hard to do that, so I waited and scummed the top when I was finished and the jam was in the jars. Scumming the top means using a spoon to remove the frothy bubbles that form on top of the jam. Once your jam is in the jars and scummed, make sure to use the special pusher tool thingy to release any extra air bubbles. If you don’t have a pusher tool thingy, just use a plastic spatula or a wooden chop stick. Just don’t use anything metal.
Remember if you aren’t going to eat the jam right away you need to create the air tight seal by placing the jars in a 10 minute hot bath.
I was really excited with how my Plum & Cherry Jam turned out. It was a great mix of tart and sweet and goes perfect on a pice of sourdough toast! I would love to know what stone fruits you would mix to make your perfect jam! Comment below or tweet me @aiminghighwife
- 2 total pounds of plums and cherries*
- 2 cups organic sugar
- juice of 1 lemon
- pinch of salt
- Pit and slice up your stone fruit.
- Add the fruit, sugar, lemon juice and salt to a large sauce pot. With a masher mash up your fruit. Bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to cook on high for at least 10-15minutes, stirring often. Once the boiling bubbles slow and the mixture slides off your wooden or metal spoon slowly the jam is ready to be canned!
- Pour your mixture into mason jars, leaving a 1/2-1 inch free space at the top. Use a "bubble remover" or small spatula or anything small and not metal! Close your jars and seal in a hot bath for 10minutes.
- *You can replace plums and/or cherries with a mix of any type of stone fruits. For this recipe I used 2 different varieties of plum and two different varieties of sweet cherries. This recipe is a great way to use up any extra fresh picked stone fruits.
- **A stone fruit is anything with a pit (cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, etc.)
