Cherry Plum Jam/Jelly?

I am definitely a city girl. Hanging out with my girlfriend Carolyn reminds me of this fact quite often. She grew up on farm property surrounded by animals. She participated in chores related to the farm and spent the majority of her childhood outdoors. I noticed when helping her unpack during her move last Summer,  that she had a lot of canning supplies. It was then that I learned that she enjoyed canning and she promised that she would teach me how to make jam. I jumped at the chance when she recently invited me over to attack the neighbor’s Cherry Plum tree hanging over her backyard fence.

Cherry Plum Tree

With buckets in hand, we went to work on the tree.

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We grabbed mostly for the darker pieces of fruit, but after a while we just started grabbing handfuls of whatever. Besides our goal of making jam, we needed to clear the branches because the cherry plums were falling on the ground, staining it, and causing problems with the vehicles parked near.

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We collected two buckets of cherry plums. I was super “Miss Perfectionist” (shocking, I know) when it came to making sure all leaves and stems were removed… probably why Carolyn picked 3x’s as many in the same amount of time – there is also that whole “city” vs. “farm” girl thing. She takes care of  the stemming when needed during the washing process.

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I sampled several cherry plums – picking different shades to see if they tasted differently. I had never tried a cherry plum before and turns out, they are delicious. I didn’t notice that much of a difference in sweetness between the colors. The darker was softer, probably meaning they were more ripe, but that didn’t change the taste.

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Carolyn dug out her canning supplies and I got to work rinsing the fruit and jars as she prepped the lids.

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Lots of pots, lots of steam and heat filling the kitchen from the boiling water…

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The jars went into the pots of boiling water… it took a while to get them upright in the orange pot because the base of the pot was slightly curved. I made the mental note – flat bottom pots are the key to jars staying upright.

We had a few different recipes pulled up on the iPad. Our major inspiration and the one we followed pretty closely was from Kitchen Travels, a blog I frequent regularly.

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The sugar, lemon juice and water ingredients were added to the cherry plums and then we turned up the heat.

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The size of the potato masher is not an illusion… it was HUGE, like broom handle huge, and it worked perfectly!

Ingredients:

  • 10 Cups Whole Cherry Plums
  • 6 Cups Sugar
  • 1/4 Cup Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 1/4 Cup Water

Directions:

  1. Prepare boiling water in a pot that is tall enough to ensure you have at least 2″ of water covering the top of your jars, plus space to allow for a hard boil.
  2. Combine all ingredients in a large pot over medium-high heat, stirring and mashing the mixture until the sugar dissolves. (We used a giant potato masher)
  3. Turn off heat. Place a sieve over a large bowl. Carefully pour the hot mixture through the sieve, pressing on the solids. Set pot aside. Remove pits, reserving any fruit and skins left in the sieve. Add reserved fruit mash to strained mixture. NOTE: You can also run the mixture through a food mill if you have one.
  4. Return the fruit mixture to the pot. Bring slowly to a boil, then cook rapidly to gelling point. Stir frequently as the jam thickens to prevent sticking or burning. NOTE: We chilled a small plate in the freezer to test the set point. Using a teaspoon, let a few drops of the jam/jelly mixture drip on to the chilled plate and allow it to cool for a short while. Push your finger sideways against the jam/jelly. When it is at the right setting point, the jam/jelly should be sticky and a gel consistency.
  5. Once you get the right consistency, remove from heat. Ladle hot jam/jelly into clean, hot jars and seal. NOTE: For Ball or Kerr style jars, leave 1/4 inch head space. Wipe rims to dry and top with hot lids. Screw bands onto the jars just until finger tight. Carolyn’s method included turning the jars upside down. She shared that “flipping the jars over” to seal them, works really well. NOTE: Most canning websites and books recommend you use a full hot-water bath for canning jam, not the flipped jar method. Whatever, Carolyn’s method worked great!

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It was during the “Place a sieve over a large bowl. Carefully pour the hot mixture through the sieve, pressing on the solids.” step where our cherry plum jam became cherry plum jelly. The green plastic ring of the sieve ripped away from the mesh when we used a spoon to mash the cherry plums. Total bummer… we had decided not to pit them before hand, because on several of the sites, they mentioned the sieve or food mill way and we thought we’d be good to go. We opted to just go with the smooth texture… so jelly it was! The whole process is about timing everything and we certainly didn’t have time to run to the store to buy a new sieve and the mixture was way too hot to sort out the pits by hand.

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This is where the wine drinking came into play. It should probably be part of the ingredient list 🙂  – you know, to keep your sanity while juggling all the boiling pots, sticky surfaces, jars, spoons and plates.

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Once we got the mixture to the right gel consistency (after the plate test) – we ladled the jelly mixture into the hot jars using the canning jar lifting tongs and funnel.

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We put Carolyn’s upside down trick into action and then they sat overnight. Our fingers were crossed that the lids would pop and they did. Carolyn assured me that it’s not a big deal if one doesn’t seal, you just need to refrigerate and eat it as soon as possible. Our brains were already thinking… on toast, over ice cream, etc.

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Turns out that we probably heated it for two long before getting to the gel consistency… the jelly was pretty thick and a little hard to spread once chilled, but the taste was still there. The perfect amount of tartness, I don’t like super sweet jelly or jam.

Now I just need to learn how to make pepper jelly with my friends Tom and Paul. They got me hooked on their pepper jelly and eating it on eggs. Love the combo – oh so delicious!

Thanks Carolyn for letting me play in your kitchen and for teaching me about canning. It was a fun afternoon for sure. Now hurry up and start posting to your blog so I can link to you.

Question: What’s your favorite jelly/jam or preserve? I’m a strawberry preserves gal, with apricot preserves running a close second. We are a multiple jelly/jam/preserve jar family. Dan’s favorite is red raspberry preserves.

After answering that question, I realized… hmmm, I don’t really know the difference between the varieties. So to the Internet I went. Source: The Nibble

Jelly is a clear, bright product. It is generally made by cooking fruit juice and sugar with pectin as a gelling agent and lemon juice as an acid to maintain a consistent texture. Jelly is firm and will hold its shape Generally, jelly contains no pieces of fruit, although specialty jellies, like pepper jelly, may include pieces of pepper.

Jam is made from crushed or chopped fruit cooked with sugar, and often pectin and lemon juice. Jam can be a puree of fruit or have a soft pulp, but it does not contain chunks of fruit.

Preserves are fruit cooked with sugar to the point where large chunks of fruit or whole fruit, such as berries, are suspended in a syrup base. The texture of preserves is not smooth like jelly or jam.

Marmalade is a soft jelly, often citrus-based, that includes both the flesh and peel of the fruit suspended throughout the jelly base. The bitterness of the peel offsets the sweetness of the jelly.

Well that didn’t really clear up anything… not sure if we ended up with jam or jelly, ha! ha! It was made from crushed fruit, cooked with sugar, no on the pectin, yes on the lemon juice… it was a puree of fruit… no chunks…. so that’s jam… but it also fits the jelly description. I’m still confused.

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5 comments

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    • Lora on June 26, 2013 at 6:19 am

    I make two things: an apple jelly because my grandma made crab apple jelly when I was a kid and it always makes me think of her, and a strawberry jam although it’s really somewhere between a jam and a preserve in terms of fruit size. Now you’ve reminded me that I haven’t done either in a while so I think I will be putting that on my “to do” list this week.

    • Carol on July 2, 2013 at 3:00 pm

    I so miss making jam with my grandma. Great post Foo!

  1. Flavorful, old-fashioned, little red plums. Jam & Jelly Jam contains both fruit juice and pieces of the fruit’s flesh. Jelly is a clear fruit spread consisting of firmed fruit juice. IngredientsFlavorful, old-fashioned, little red plums; sugar; natural fruit pectin. Our Jam & Jelly is made from fruits & vegetables lovingly grown, picked & processed on our farm in Niagara County, New York.

    • Amy on July 11, 2013 at 11:50 am

    I’d like to make jam someday. I love Strawberry but once in awhile I will grab some orange marmalade… it reminds me of my grandparents since that’s the only time I used to eat it 🙂 I also love pepper jelly! I wish I could learn to make it with you!

    • Sandee on August 4, 2013 at 9:50 am

    Thank you so much for including pictures. I have not canned anything but pickles, and that was once about 9 years ago! I have a beautiful, purple leaf, cherry plum tree out back and this year is it fully loaded. I mean FULLY LOADED. We had no fruit last year and only a handful the year before that. We pruned it last year and viola! I have hundreds and hundreds of little, purple plums and they are very ready for picking. We didn’t do the pruning to purposely have plums by the way. They are a little hard to see at times because they are the same color as the leaves, but it is overwhelming to say the least. Some have wrinkled on the vine. Others are perfect. Others are still slightly firm. I have more than enough. Too much. Scary enough. I guess their ripeness depends on where the sun has been shining on them. I have also been fortunate that the birds have not attacked this tree (yet) and we have no insect pests. I have not sprayed anything on this tree. It’s just out in the backyard looking pretty, with bending branches from the weight of the little plums. Some have fallen to the ground already and our dog is enjoying that. They are delicious right off the vine, but I MUST make some jam because I have so many and I hate to see them go to waste. Many will fall anyway and I couldn’t possibly use ALL of them, but I think I’ll be busy all week. I will actually need our big 8 ft. ladder to reach the taller branches tomorrow. I need to make a trip to a kitchen store or grocery store for the jars, sieve and funnel, but I already have everything else. Anyway, thank you for your instructions. I can only hope my sieve doesn’t rip away like yours did, but I can use a sieve that is more like a thick, screen strainer too. Wish me luck! 🙂

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