Home Canning Project: Plum Jam!

Dan didn't know he was going to be used as manual labor during our vacation.

We had a lovely weekend in the country, in true food blogger fashion.  :-)  My grandparents have a plum tree that is so overloaded with plums that all of my grandma's daughters already went through and picked bags upon bags, there is still a ton left, and my mom and I went through and picked out more bags.  And there is still fruit left--so much that one branch has fallen off, overloaded as it is!  The above picture is my husband picking some of the higher fruit that us short folk can't reach.  He wasn't sure what was ripe or not, but it turned out everything he picked was glorious because the entire tree was just that good.

A kitchen scale is essential in this task.  You can get one fairly cheap, for around $15.

I spent a few days trying to eat all the fruit before I decided that jam was in order.  My grandma had suggested jelly, but since I have never even made jam on my own (always with help from friends), I thought I'd give it a shot.  The above picture is weighing out the chopped up plums.  I had about 4 or 5 pounds of plums total.

I'm not including a recipe here because your mileage may vary, and it's all about ratios anyway.  I ended up going to Ball's website (listed on your handy dandy canning equipment--any canning brand has its own helpful website) and searching for a recipe based on the fruit I had.  You can even search by type, ratio (how much pectin you will need), and many more.  I ended up taking a peach jam recipe from their site and multiplying it by how much fruit I had.  I figured the sugar adjustments would be about right for plums.  I used a scale to figure out ratios of however much fruit I added in, doing some maths, figured out the amount of pectin and sugar.  That's all that is in this jam.  Simple!

The jars and lids get a soak in the hot tub while the jam boils away.

Once you figure out the recipe maths, the other part that might be intimidating is the actual canning process.  Just remember to be sterile and careful.  It's really simple once you get a routine.  I went to my local hardware store and got a container of jars and lids.  The ones shown below are 4 ounce jars, very cute, and are packaged with sticker labels so your jar will look super Martha Stewart-y.  You can reuse the jar and rings, but have to buy lids.  I always forget to save the rings, so I just end up re-buying the entire package.  If you got this down to a better routine, and had free fruit to can, this would be a very cost-effective hobby!

All the jars ready to POP their TOPS

The other item I got besides jars and some fruit pectin was a handy dandy "canning kit."  It was $11 and while not really necessary, it saved my skin, literally, and saved a lot of time, too.  The kit included the tongs pictured above, great for picking up boily-hot jars from boiling water (USEFUL), a funnel to make spooning the jam into the jars VERY easy, and a little magnet on a stick, which sounds silly but is VERY useful for lifting the lids out of the boiling water and plopping them on the filled jars.  It also included this little "bubble popper" thingy which I didn't use and didn't find too useful.  But the rest rocked.

Other than that, I would say to just follow the directions in your canning recipe and on the box of jars (or online).  The canning recipe usually deals with the actual jam--cooking the fruit and getting it to boil and set.  The processing recipe usually deals with how to process the jars in a clean way.

Jam Recipe:

• Cooking fruit - easy!
• Follow the recipe because boiling times may vary.  For this recipe, I boiled the fruit and pectin together until it was at a rolling boil that couldn't be stirred down, then added all the sugar and brought up to another hard boil for five minutes.  Then it was time to process.

Processing Recipe:

• Killing off bacteria, fungus, and other nasties!
• Following directions on the jar container, I hand-washed in hot soapy water and then rinsed the jars, lids, and rings.  The rings are merely a formality, so once they are clean, you can let them air-dry.
• The jars and lids, however, are IMPORTANT.  I put them immediately into the water bath to stay nice and boily hot while simultaneously boiling the jam.  It was at a constant simmer for the 15 minutes or so that I boiled the jam (I wanted them to be all ready at the same time).
• When the jam was ready, my faithful assistant (Dan) and I worked quickly to get the jam in the jars and the jars closed.  This meant pulling one jar at a time out and onto a towel.  In goes the funnel, plop goes the jam, plop goes the lid (also pulled fresh from the simmering water), and gently closed by the ring (CAUTION:  HOT).
• We repeated this with all 12 jars.  Then back into the waterbath they go for five minutes on, and five minutes off.
• The fun part is after.  You can enjoy the "overage" jam that didn't fit in a jar, while hearing the jars cool down and go POP.  A popped seal is a good seal.
• If a jar didn't seal in 12-24 hours, they tell you to re-process.  I would just eat it at that point if I were you.  We lucked out and all 12 jars closed tightly.

The "overage" which we got to eat right away instead of can.

Would I do it again?  Probably.  I consider this alright for a first try.  I was happy it worked out and I didn't waste any time or jam.  The entire process took 1.5 hours, that included some time to calculate ratios and wash the jars, as well as prep the fruit.

Wouldn't this be impressive for a Christmas or housewarming gift?  You would be tops in that person's book.