Recipe: Plum Skillet Jam
It's a quicker-to-make, small-batch skillet jam. No vats of hot water or canning jars needed.
Finding Italian prune plums at the farm stand makes me both excited and sad. Excited because it’s time to make my almond plum kuchen — sad because it means summer and the growing season are ending. Yes, we have apples and pears, evidenced by my fruit CSA basket. Still, fall is coming quickly.
The season is visibly shifting. Soon there will be quinces to roast, winter squash to bake with maple syrup and butter, applesauce to freeze, sweet potatoes, new crop turnips and fresh Brussels sprouts instead of those tough woody ones.
Main-season fruits and veg are ending. The big sexy tomatoes. Drip-down-your-chin juicy peaches and nectarines. Cantaloupe. Blueberries. Sweet corn. Zucchini. Done or about to be done. So these late-summer plums are a lovely, sweet-tart diversion to nature’s ways. She always has a plan.
My plan, and hopefully yours, is to preserve one of the sweet tastes of summer by turning prune plums into jam.
You protest: “So much sugar. So much simmering. Those vats of hot water! Canning jars are impossible to locate.”
Fear not. This quicker-to-make, small-batch skillet jam uses just-enough sugar, is done in under an hour and can be spooned into any small, clean glass jar with a lid (perhaps one that once held commercial jam). Plums are one of the easiest fruits to jam. No peeling needed, just halve, pit, and go. Plus, plums contain lots of natural pectin in the skin, so in all likelihood, your jam will set up, or jell. If it doesn’t, you’ll have a fantastic sauce for pound cake or ice cream.
Because this jam is not processed (boiled in the aforementioned vat of water), once cooled it must be refrigerated. The refrigerator shelf life is about three weeks. It may last longer, but this rich purple-hued preserve, this essence of fresh plums, will be gone before then. Jam on.
Plum Skillet Jam
Makes about two 8-ounce jars.
2 pounds firm Italian prune plums (1 heaped quart basket), stems removed, rinsed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 clean 8-ounce jars with lids
1. Halve and pit the plums and cut away any bad spots or rusty skin. Trim any rough patches inside the plums, sometimes near the pit. Cut halves in half again. You should get about 4 cups.
2. Put the plums, sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a large heavy skillet (not nonstick). Toss well to mix. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Place a small plate in the freezer for testing the jam and test it as it begins to jell and thicken (see below).
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook at a moderate simmer, stirring often (more as it thickens), adjusting heat as necessary, for 30 to 35 minutes, or a few minutes longer, until it’s thickened, deep-purple and jam-like. Remove from the heat. Test for jelling (see below). If the jam has not yet set, return to the heat and cook, stirring, a few minutes more.
4. Meanwhile, fill your jars with hot tap water and let stand until ready to use. Pour out the water and dry if needed.
5. Spoon the hot jam into the warm, clean jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. With a moistened paper towel, wipe threads and edges of the jars and secure the lids. Place jars on a kitchen towel on the counter and let cool, then refrigerate. Use within about three weeks.
To test if the jam is done: Several times as it cooks, spoon a little jam onto the cold plate and put it back in the freezer for a minute or so. If it seems set, stays in a little blob and doesn’t run, it’s done. Also, as the jam cooks and thickens, using a metal spoon, scoop up a spoonful, holding the spoon above the skillet. When you tip the spoon, the jam should drop off of it in thick drips or sheets. If runny, it’s not yet set.
