This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
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 white 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.
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
Exactly what I was looking for! I’ll be making this tomorrow with 35 lbs of plums I picked up at the local orchard for a STEAL! Probably shouldn’t have done it on a weekend when I have project deadlines, but oh well. Jam will have to come first!
Did I mention I also bought 25 lbs of pears?
I can’t wait until next year when we put in our plum trees! We’re planting them for our daughter…her middle name? Plum! (She’s the sweetest!) 🙂
That is a sweet middle name 🙂 I love it! What are your plans for all the pears?
My aunt grows this plum. It’s called nubiana. I plan to try your recipe.
Thank you, I hope you’ll love it :).
Thanks Natasha for the awesome recipe! I was just looking for a different way to make plum jam avoiding the 2-3 hours of stirring in the pot and I found your blog. I am going to use it in the spring for apricots, too. My jam looks very nice and all my kids loved it.
Oh yes, it is amazing with apricots. Just add sugar to taste since apricots can have varying degrees of sweetness. 🙂
Fabulous!!! My family just had the jam on French toast and loved it!
Awesome!! Thanks for the feedback. I’m so happy you all enjoyed it 🙂
I have the same tree in my backyard. They are called: Prune Plums
Thanks Maria! 🙂
These are American plums.
Natasha recipe sounds awesome I can’t wait to try it. Do you think I can add rhubarb? If so what ratio woul you recommend? Thank you
Kelly B
I haven’t tried adding rhubarb, but it should be about an equal substitution of rhubarb for plums and add more sugar to taste since rhubarb may not be as sweet as your plums 🙂 Hope that’s helpful.
Natasha, In the boiling water bath, should the jars be fully submerged?
Just to the base of the lids. You don’t want to fully submerge them or water will get in the lives since you’re not tightening them until after the water bath.
Water bath canning requires the jars to be fully submerged under 2″ of water. The contents boil up, and are sterilized with the jar and seal. Then the jars are removed from the water they cool and as the hot air escapes it creates a vacuum which pulls the lid down tight and seals on the hot glass rim.
That said, I never bother with a water bath on jams, but fill 250-degree jars from oven with boiling jam, put sterilized hot seals and clean rings on, hand-tightened, turn them upside down for 5 minutes to activate the seal, then turn them upright so that the air can escape as the vacuum seal is created. My guess is that your oven-sealing method creates the vacuum in the oven and that’s why you can keep them upside down to cool (but I’d really miss hearing the pings! 🙂 )
YES!!!! There has to be a couple of inches of water covering the filled jars. No water will seep in if the ring is adequately tightened, but do NOT over-tighten, as the hot air has to escape. Don’t get canning advice from blogs written by people who are ignorant about the right way to do it, it just is too dangerous!
Natasha,
One question how do you store these after cooling? Do you freeze, refrigerate or just on the shelf. I love simple recipes. Thanks so much!
You can leave them on the shelf at room temp or cooler for up to a year 🙂 Refrigerate after opening.
Hi there, I belong to a fruit rescue group in my city, Edmonton Alberta…operationfruitrescue.org/ and we had a plum pick last week.Some were so ripe they were falling off the tree…followed your recipe with the ripe ones and kept the others for just snacking.
A fruit rescue group? What a cool idea!
hi nathasha thanks for your wonderfull recipe.we are in maldives and dont have plum trees around here.but we can easily buy from super markets.anyway I had make 3 cans of jam using same recipe.but instead of making plum jam I used plums and green apple both.i think this is the way to thikening jam very easily and fast. if you dont like add more apple you can use one apple for same recipy.(grean apple cantaining natural pectine)then you can make jam in less cooking steps.LOVE YOUR BLOG.
That’s very creative! Thank you for sharing that with us 🙂
Hi, this recipe looks great. Thanks for sharing. I’m not meaning to be picky, but I don’t think you should be promoting long term storage of jam without at least mentioning current safety standards, which is ten minutes in a boiling waterbath. I know flipping them upside down is a standard old method and might seal the jars, but it will not kill all the bacteria that could grow over time, and although botulism isn’t a worry in this case, it can cause spoilage more quickly or potentially make people sick. I’m not fear mongering, it’s unlikely to happen. But in writing a blog post that comes across as some sort of authority in jam making, I think you have a responsibility to mention it.
Hi Jennie,
I’ve added that note. Do you tighten the lids when you put it in the boiling water bath (is the can fully submerged with the lid tightened?) Thank you so much for sharing!
Awesome! You don’t tighten, no. The rings should be on enough so they’re affixed well and holding the lid firmly onto the jar, but too tight and you won’t give air bubbles the change to escape, which could affect the sealing process. After you’ve processed them and they’re cool, you can just remove the ring all together and put it back in your storage drawer! It’s done its job and is now totally unnecessary. You can test a seal by holding the jar by the lid alone. It won’t budge.
Thank you! I’ve added your tips to all of my canning recipes 🙂 You’re awesome!!
So the jars are fully submerged?
Since you aren’t tightening the lids, you don’t want to fully submerge them or water will get in the jars. Just to the base of the lid is fine.
YES, the jars are fully submerged by about two inches of water, this is how the vacuum is achieved. The rings should be as tight as you can get them with your fingers, no tools. The air will actually leak out, beacause the seal isn’t technically created until the jars are out of the water. after the jars have boiled for the appropriate time, take them out and let cool on the counter, with the rings still on. If you listen, you will eventually hear pings as the lids seal and a vacuum is created. When they are completely cool, and the lids don’t flex when you push down on them, then you can take the rings off. A good website for canning instructions is www.pickyourown.org
Thanks JR!! Maybe I overfilled mine when I did it that way. It got quite messy. How much do you fill your jars?
Dear Natasha:
Question: I have only 5lbs of plums, can I adjust the recipe to fit my needs. It sounds delicious. But as I am older, we don’t need to make as much Jam as I used to make when I had six children, but my husband still enjoys his homemade jam. Plums are ready to go. They are the large prune plums, will it still work.
Those plums should still work and yes you can definitely scale back the recipe, just make sure to stir more often, especially towards the end so your mixture doesn’t scorch to the bottom of the pot.
Does this recipe work okay if I cut in in half? I only have about 6 pounds of plumbs?
Yes, you sure can cut it in half, just stir often, especially toward the tend to prevent scorching to the bottom.
I’m really curious to try this recipe for many reasons…very little sugar,no peeling. And it looks amazing. I especially love the fact that I don’t have to peel the plums but am a bit concerned at how my jam would turn out because some of my plums have kind of sour peel. What are your thoughts. Thanks for any feedback….God bless
Mine didn’t have a sour peel. I guess it depends on how sour the peel is. You might add a little more sugar to taste if you leave the peels on.
Thanks and I’m looking forward to trying this recipe soon
I love this plum recipe and wonder if I can do the same thing with peaches…
You might try this recipe for peaches 🙂 https://natashaskitchen.com/2012/08/26/country-peach-preserves/
You might try this recipe for peaches 🙂 https://natashaskitchen.com/2012/08/26/country-peach-preserves/
Hi… .The plum jam based on your recipe came out really good 🙂
Also tried another variation…along with plums, added some peaches and that also came out very good !! Thanks a lot 🙂
Oh wow, both together? That sounds amazing!!
how many cups is 12lbs of fruit? I don’t have a scale.
Thanks!
1 lb is about 6-8, two inch wide plums. I never measured it out in cups so It’s hard to guess.
If you have a bathroom scale, weigh yourself, then weigh yourself holding the plums to see how much you need.
That’s brilliant! Thank you!
Hi ~ I did not see about the skins. Do you remove them during boiling process or pull them out and grind them up?
Leave the skins intact, they incorporate really well into the jam. No need to take them out.
Hello, I just discovered a plum tree in my backyard and am super excited to try out this recipe.. I was just wondering though in your title it says no peel, no pectin but you don’t specify if one should peel the plums or not and in your pictures they have peels.. Does it matter either way?
Thanks so much
You don’t have to peel the plums. 🙂 easy!!!
Dear Natasha,
Thanks so much for this simple, wonderful, straight-forward recipe! I picked about 30# of plums yesterday–it’s a bumper crop here in upstate New York. My first batch is cooling after the initial simmer and already I can’t wait for the results.
Mmm that sounds so good right now on some toasted bread 🙂