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We’re on a canning spree this week. The air is crisp and the mornings are cool. We’re surrounded by a fiery array of leaves that rustle in the warm afternoon breeze. Fall is in the air and canning just feels right this time of year.
I could eat this plum jam by the spoonful; paired with a hot mug of tea (I’m totally day dreaming here)… Our tiny plum tree overproduces the most amazing little plums every year. I wish I could name this variety; anyone recognize these little beauties?
This recipe is really a cross between plum jam and plum preserves. It still has some of it’s preserve-like plum chunks, but it’s nice and thick and spreads beautifully. It’s awesome paired with breakfast pancakes or crepes. Oh and this would make the sweetest Christmas gift!
Home Canning Tools:
- 8 pint-sized jars with lids. I purchased them at Walmart.
- Large Stock Pot (20Qt+) with Rack (or purchase a canner)
- Jar lifter to safely transfer the jars
How to Make Plum Jam:
Cooking the Preserves:
1. Cut 12 lbs of plums in half, pit them and place in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle well with 4 1/2 cups sugar. Using a large spoon, stir plums with sugar until all are coated. If your plums are overripe or already very sweet, you may only need 4 cups of sugar total. You can add more sugar to taste while its cooking. Let plums sit at room temp with the sugar for about 1 hour, or until sugar is somewhat dissolved.
2. Transfer plums/sugar mixture in to a large cooking pot. Place it on the stove uncovered and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Make sure if you see a light boil to stir because the whole pot may not be boiling, just the center. If it stops boiling after you stir it, continue boiling until everything is uniformly bubbling, then simmer for 10 minutes and turn off the heat. Let the pot stand uncovered until it is just warm to the touch or reaches room temp.
3. As soon as it cools, repeat step 2 the same way – simmering 10 minutes. You will bring it to a simmer a total of 4 times, stirring to prevent scorching the bottom. This is why it takes 2 days to make. It’s really easy though and so worthwhile! There’s no “set” waiting time between boilings. If 2 days doesn’t work for you, by all means, take 3 days. Preserves have plenty of sugar so they won’t spoil at room temp if you leave it on the counter overnight. If you want the preserves to have an even thicker consistency, you can boil it 5-6 times if you wish.
(Note: the fourth time you boil, bring it to a boil over a little lower heat and stir a few extra times to prevent scorching. Also, it thickens more as it cools. If using a different type of plum, I suggest adding sugar to taste in case they are more tart)
4. The last time you bring it to a boil you will want to transfer it to sterilized jars while it’s boiling hot.
To sterilize the jars:
1. Start by washing your jars and lids with warm water and soap then let them dry in the oven at 215 for about 20 min or until completely dry. Boil the lids 5 min.
2. Transfer your boiling hot jam to the jars using a glass measuring cup and a funnel (least messy method) leaving about 1/2″ space.
3. Screw the lids on enough to keep a tight seal in place but don’t over-tighten them since air bubbles need to be able to escape.
Current Canning Guidelines:
Get up to date on the most recent canning guidelines here. It’s a great resource to answer frequently asked canning questions. Current guidelines recommend the following process (instead of oven canning):
- Place packed cans into the canning pot and cover with 1-2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and process 15 minutes.
- Remove from the pot and leave at room temperature undisturbed for 12-24 hours. You may hear a pop when the jars fully seal.
- After 24 hours, check that the seal has formed by pushing down on the center of the lid – it should not move at all. If the seal does not form, refrigerate jam and enjoy within 3 months.
Now don’t you want to curl up with a jar of that?
Plum Jam Recipe (No Peel, No Pectin!)

Ingredients
- 12 lbs sweet ripe plums, rinsed
- 4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 8 pint-sized jars with lids.
Instructions
- Place pitted and halved plums into the mixing bowl & drizzle with 4 1/2 cups of sugar. Stir plums until all coated with sugar. Let them sit for 1 hour then transfer the mixture into a large cooking pot.
- Bring it to a boil uncovered, stirring occasionally. Boil until the mixture is bubbling uniformly. Simmer for 10 minutes then turn off the heat. Cool to room temperature.
- Repeat step 2 a total of FOUR times. Last time bringing it to a boil at the lower temperature, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
To Sterilize Your Jars:
- Start by washing your jars and lids with warm water and soap then let them dry in the oven at 215 for about 20 min or until completely dry. Boil the lids 5 min.
Filling and processing your jam:
- Transfer your boiling hot jam to the jars using a glass measuring cup and a funnel (least messy method) leaving about 1/2″ space.
- Screw the lids on enough to keep a tight seal in place but don't over-tighten them since air bubbles need to be able to escape.
- Place packed cans into the canning pot and cover with 1-2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and process 15 minutes. Remove from the pot and leave at room temperature undisturbed for 12-24 hours. You may hear a pop when the jars fully seal. After 24 hours, check that the seal has formed by pushing down on the center of the lid - it should not move at all. If the seal does not form, refrigerate jam and enjoy within 3 months.
Nutrition Per Serving
Recipe updated in 2019 to reflect new canning standards. Previously we used the oven method: screw the lids on enough to keep a tight seal in place but don’t over-tighten them since air bubbles need to be able to escape and place in the oven at 350˚F for 15 min then carefully remove from oven, flip upside down and let cool to room temperature.
Signs of Spoiled Canned Food:
With any type of canning, we follow this advice: “When in doubt, throw it out”
Discard and do not eat or taste any canned food if you notice any of the following:
- the jar is leaking, bulging, or swollen
- the jar looks damaged, cracked, or abnormal
- the jar spurts foam or liquid upon opening
- the canned food is discolored, moldy, mushy, slimy, or smells bad
In step 3, don’t you mean repeat step 2?
Hi Annette, sorry for the mixup – yes, repeat step 2. I updated that. Thanks for asking! 🙂
Out here in western Oregon, these are known as Brooks plums (prunes domestica). They are typically ripe in late August or early September. In addition to jam, I’ve dried them and made wine, depending upon the productivity of the year.
Hi Dave, thank you for sharing! I’ve never heard of plum wine – sounds so intriguing!
I am intrigued by the idea of plum wine. Wound you have a recipe for that?
Hi Natasha,
Can I use recycled jelly and peanut butter jars? I don’t have mason jars with the detachable center lid.
Hi Mirella, for canning on the shelf, those types of jars are not recommended since the seal may not form properly. My mom recycled lids for a long time but we’ve since learned it isn’t best practice. If they are glass jars, you can use the jars and buy new lids but it may be challenging if they have different sized tops. If they are not glass jars, they should not be used for canning.
Thank you! Bought some today! How long do these last in the pantry?
Hi Mirella, if they are canned, their shelf life is a year or more.
I don’t have a kitchen scale (or bathroom scale). How many small plums would you estimate are in one pound?
Hi Michelle, it depends on the size of your plums. 1 lb for me was about 6-8, two-inch-wide plums.
Can you use a water bath to can these plums
Hi Deena, yes that would work to do a water bath.
I am using 2lbs. instead of 12 lbs of plums and would like to know if one still cooks the 4 cups of jam for 10 minutes repeated four times?
Thanks so much for an easy recipe!
Hi Renae, it will probably thicken up faster and may be enough after 2-3 cooking times instead of 4. A smaller amount will evaporate liquid faster since there is more surface area to the total amount of plums. Be extra careful not to scorch the bottom.
Hi Natasha!
Do you think this ratio of sugar to fruit would also work for sour cherries? I’ve used this method with the cherries before, but cannot remember what the ratio is. If I make the preserves, my Ukrainian mother-in-law will make the blinchiki. Yum!
Hi Tina, I think it would work fine with cherries. You would have to add sugar to taste since not all cherries are equally sweet.
Howdy Natasha!
This will be my first time making jam or jelly. Eight pints is a little too much for me right now. If I use eight 8 oz jars do I just cut the amount of sugar and plums in half? Does the cooking/simmering time change? Thanks for your help!
Hi Lee, yes, cut everything in half since you are making half the recipe. It may cook faster since it is a smaller batch so keep an eye on it so it doesn’t scorch on the bottom.
Hi would this wirk with cherries?
Hi Tanya, I think that would work 🙂
They are called prune plums.
I think the shape here is too round to be the egg-shaped prune plum. I have smaller cherry sized plums with the same coloring that are cocheco plums I’m using this recipe for. Can’t wait to try it!
I am wondering if you could use artificial sweetner such Splenda as I am diabetic.
Hi Lynda, I haven’t tried that but one of my readers, Maddy, left a very helpful reply on that: “Kathy, I am type 2 diabetic too and I make not plum jam but the traditional Polish version called “powidla”.
There is no sugar added. It agrees with my diabetes just fine.
As many traditional recipes, this one takes a lot of time and work but very little ingredients. Basically plums, preferably late autumn ones, small and sweet, but any other ripe plums will do.
You just have to cook pitted plums for 3-4 days (more juicy plums take longer), about 4 hours a day – bring to boil that turn to low heat. Than let it cool in between.
At some point it’s more frying than cooking. Takes a lot of stirring, because from day 2 it can burn easily (if it burs, transfer to another pot avoiding scraping the burned bits from the bottom, they will be bitter).
Sounds tiring but it’s worth all this work.
At the end, when it’s all cooked, you may add some sweetener. I suggest stevia. Powidla are sweet and tart, stewia is a bit insipid, goes well together.
But sucralose is fine too.
Don’t use acesulfam K or aspartam – it gives the worst aftertaste to plums. I’ve made that mistake once. 5 kilos of plums into the drain. Uneatable.
When it’s cooked and sweetened, just bring it to the boil one last time, transfer searing hot to the jars, close lids very tightly and stand upside down on a kitchen towel until they are cool.
Than enjoy!”
Hi Natasha
This recipe looks absolutely fabulous as I was given some frozen plumbs (that have defrosted & are still lovely & firm) so I will make some of your Jam & am looking forward to seeing the end result 🙂
YUM! Please let me know how it turns out Heidi!
Hi.
Could you use this procedure for other fruits? I do not like to use pectin and I have tried making my grandmother’s strawberry preserves without pectin and so far I either undercook or overcook! Should have paid more attention instead of just waiting to devour them on freshly baked yeast rolls. Thanks.
Hi Candice, it depends on what you’re making jam with. With strawberries, you probably could make that work but you might not have the nice chunky texture because of the lengthy cooking. Strawberries also release quite a bit of juice so you would have to cook it at a gentle simmer a few times. I haven’t tried with strawberries since we’ve never had a massive bumper crop of them but it sounds like a great idea!
Thank you and it is worth a try to use this process. I do know that you want to use a few not completely ripe strawberries because under ripe strawberries have pectin as opposed to completely ripe strawberries and the strawberries need to be close in size. My grandma would also put the jam on jelly roll pans and place a tea towel over them and sit them in the sun for several hours. Not sure why but her preserves were out of this world good.
Thank you so much for sharing your tips!! 🙂
Simple recipe, but a lot of misinformed recommendations here:
Heating and cooling and doing it again 4x or 6x over 2-3 days is a waste of time and energy: just boil slowly for 1h30 and you’ll get the same result. The whole point of boiling is to evaporate the water in the mixture so it thickens, so just keep cooking it until it does.
Saying there is a lot of sugar so it won’t spoil is also non-sense: sugar is what mold feeds on, but it would take days for any to develop once it’s cool. It’s heat that ‘preserves’ your jam until you seal it in the sterelized jar.
As far as as sealing the jar: suggesting not to tighten too much because air bubbles need to get out is non-sense: if air can get out, it is not sealed. Air doesn’t ‘get out’, it just shrinks as it cools down, causing the jar lid to pop in. It needs to be air tight, or air would get in actually and your jar just won’t preserve.
I picked this recipe because it showed the shortest time on the summary, and then it calls for taking 2-3 days. Misleading.
This could be summarized in 3 lines: mix plums and sugar, wait til sugar is absorbed, boil until it thickens, and jar. Done.
Just wanted to thank you for your recipe. I used it two years ago and loved it so much I made a second batch. The first batch was a little runny (such a good syrup though!), so the next one I cooked longer.
I was grateful I made extra because the next year our tree got sick and we had to cut it to a stump. It looks good again and we hope to get a good crop again this year.
Here’s a post I wrote with your recipe: makingmilly.com/things-i-dont-buy-anymore-unshopping-list/
You’re welcome Milly! Thank you so much for sharing!! 😀
Hi just made this recipe…my first jam canning experience but only my 2nd canning experience overall. I’m abt to put them in oven. I also added cinammon. I pureed it in blender after i picked out skins. My nephew who eats vry healthy is gonna be glad cuz i also used pure organic cane sugar. This reminds me of my gramma’s plum jam. Thanx
You’re very welcome and I hope you love it! 🙂
Hi there. This recipe is so easy it why the boil,cool, repeat? Is it to prevent burning to release natural pectin? Thank you for this beautiful recipe.
Hi Danielle, yes that is right! It’s also so it thickens up nicely without discoloring.
I learned today these are Stanley Plums😃
How lone does it keep for and where should I store it? No one really adds this info with their recipies.
Pierrette
It depends on how you’re storing it. In the freezer it would be good up to 3 months and longer in a deep freezer. If canned for the shelf, it can last up to a year or longer.
I am originally from Newfoundland, Canada & we call these plums Damsons. We have 2 Damson trees in our backyard here in Halifax, Nova Scotia & they make great jam.
Thank you for sharing that with us Karolynn.
Just starting your plum jam recipe. Will let you know how it turns out. Thank you!
You are welcome Lee and I will be waiting for your feedback 😀.