Description
This gorgeously golden jam makes the most of the little yellow plums that show up at the farmers' market in the early summer.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 pound ripe yellow plums
- 2 1/4 cups sugar (approximate)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 6 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Put a ceramic saucer in the freezer. Pit the plums and cut into quarters.
- Measure out the fruit. For each cup of fruit, you'll need 3/4 cup sugar (I ended up with 3 cups of chopped plums, so I used 2 1/4 cups of sugar for my batch of jam... but YMMV).
- In a large heavy pot with high sides, layer the plums and sugar. Add spices, lemon juice and water. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar has been completely dissolved. Continue simmering for about 10 minutes, or until plums are softened.
- Turn the heat to high and bring to a hard boil. Boil for about seven or eight minutes. After eight minutes, pull the saucer from the freezer and test for gelling using the saucer test - if the jam is not quite ready, continue boiling and test again after a minute or two, continuing until the desired consistency is achieved.
- Once the jam passes the test, take it off the heat and fish out all of the spices (nothing ruins a good jam like biting down on a whole clove, after all). Ladle the hot jam into sterilized jars. You can store the jam in the refrigerator for up to a month or, if longer storage is desired, you can also process the jars for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath and store for up to a year in a cool, dry place.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins