Plum Jam

I made plum jam from our CSA plums last night. They weren't the best eating plums, to be honest, but they made some delicious jam! Smelled just like the plum jam I used to eat as a kid.


Making jam is really, really easy and really, really tasty. I don't use a recipe, but here's the general process and what you'll need:

-glass jar(s) - these needn't be canning jars unless you're planning to store the jam for a while. If it's for pretty immediate use and kept in the fridge any clean glass jar with a lid is fine.

-sugar

-fruit

-heavy bottomed saucepan

-wooden spoon

Not much, right? I roughly chop the fruit, and pit if necessary. Then I put it in the saucepan over a medium or medium high heat. Stir as necessary to keep the heat even and fruit from burning or sticking. When the fruit is at a low boil and is soft and has mostly fallen apart, add sugar. I don't like my jams super sweet or super thick (I find most commercial jam to have a texture like jello which is NOT delicious), so I usually put in about 1/2 or 2/3d's as much sugar as I did fruit. Last night I had about 3- 3 1/2 cups of plums, so I used 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Stir pretty constantly once you add the sugar and keep it at a hard boil. Cook until it's thickened slightly. I use a highly scientific method for this, and drop spoonfuls of the hot jam on the counter next to the stove and run my finger through it when it's cooled slightly. If my finger leaves a visible trail (ie the jam isn't so liquidy that it runs back together immediatly) it's done or pretty close. I cook my jam less than 10 minutes after I add the sugar- last night I think it was 6 minutes. I find this makes a fresher tasting jam.

And that's it! Delicious jam in 30 minutes or less.