Plum Crisp + Jam

A Plum Story

Wikipedia states that plums may have been one of the very first fruits to have been cultivated, and originated in Iran. The fruit is a drupe, meaning it has a central large seed surrounded by a thick flesh and skin. When dried, plums become prunes and I happen to like both forms of the fruit.

• I should note that in some countries prunes are a different variety of plums that are naturally a little more wrinkly. But here in the USA they are mostly the same fruit.

Also called a “stone fruit”, the seed is hazardous to humans and pets. GoodHousekeeping writes: The seeds (also known as stones, pits, or kernels) of stone fruits like apricots, cherries, plums, and peaches do contain a compound called amygdalin, which breaks down into hydrogen cyanide when ingested. And, yes, hydrogen cyanide is definitely a poison. Ingestion should be avoided.

Our Shared Tree

I do not have a plum tree, but my neighbor does, and she planted that very productive tree close to our mutual fence. This year, during the end of June to end of July 2020, the tree became so heavy with fruit its branches were tearing and falling into our yard. With her permission, we picked some of the fruit, and picked up all the fruit that fell off the trees; resulting in having many pounds of plums.

So what we did was to wash the fruit, and put many of the plums out on the street in bowls for people to take. But even though we got rid of many that way, there were still pounds left. So, I decided to make a plum crisp and plum jam.

Although I have made crisps before, this was the first jam I have made on my own, and luckily our neighbor Ellen had all the equipment we needed, except the jars and processed lemon juice. A quick trip to Ace Hardware, and El Cerrito Natural Grocery Store, and we were ready.

Plums are a Healthy Fruit

HealthLine lists a variety of healthy aspects to plums that are hard to beat. While relatively low in calories, these fruit have a large amount of important vitamins and minerals, and are rich in antioxidants. They are proven (in plum or prune form) to help relieve constipation, lower blood sugar, support bone and heart health, and are very easy to add to a diet.

• 1 average plum (1)
  • Calories: 30
  • Carbs: 8 grams
  • Fiber: 1 gram
  • Sugars: 7 grams
  • Vitamin A: 5% of the RDI
  • Vitamin B: small anouts
  • Vitamin C: 10% of the RDI
  • Vitamin K: 5% of the RDI
  • Potassium: 3% of the RDI
  • Copper: 2% of the RDI
  • Manganese: 2% of the RDI
  • Phosphorus: small amounts

While the fruit is healthy, if you eat it fresh and raw, there is nothing healthy about what I cooked. Both the crisp and jam are sugar-laden to counter the tartness of Some of the the fruit and its skin.

You can eat the skins easily enough, although they can be a bit tart, but if you want to remove them just use the blanching technique to loosen and remove.

Plum Crisp

Only thing to say of this Plum Crumble is that the plums I used were not consistently ripe, and plum skins have a tendency to be tart. As a result of these factors there is a general ratio of 1:1, one pound plums to 1C sugar that many people use. If you have a Plum Crisp recipe, use that but this is a very simple thing to make,

• De-seed the fruit, keep skins on
• Mix with sweetener (sugar, honey, whatever your preference)
• Add spices (like ground ginger)
• Add some cornstarch
• Place the fruit mix in the bottom of a greased baking pan
• Then top with a sugary, buttery, flat-oat mix
• Put in the oven to bake

This is not a low caloric, high protein, or healthy fruit dessert, but it is tasty, with a sweet-tart flavor.

Plum Jelly or Jam

This is one of the few food-related experiments my spouse and I did together. Usually I am the only cook, with an occasional specialty that belongs to the other side of the family. But this time, we worked together on the tasks.

But first we had an argument, is this a jelly or jam?

• Jelly usually starts from fruit juice, but the end result is a clearish jelly showing no fruit or skins. What this means is you cook the fruit and strain out all particulates.
• Jams usually start from the whole fruit and you do not strain anything. Skins, clumps of flesh, and liquid makes up a jam.

Just kidding on the argument, but it does sound like us to differ on the terms.

Jamming Tools

Our neighbor Ellen lent us all the tools she had for canning, which included a very large canning pot and lid, the interior jar holders, a wide mouth funnel, and jar remover. She also lent us a food mill in case we wanted to mill the fruit to a jelly consistency.

We started with a paring knife, and discard bowl. And rummaged around to find a large pot + lid to cook the fruit, and a smaller pot + lid to simmer the lids. We also used hot pads, tongs (to get the lids out of the water), ladle (for pouring the jelly into the jars), wooden spoon (for mixing), kitchen towels, and both measuring cups and a scale.

Plum Jam Ingredients

The ingredients were simple: de-seeded and skin-on plums, organic sugar, water and processed lemon juice. 

Pectin Not Needed

Plums are perfect fruit for making jelly or jam, they have a tart-sweet taste and are naturally packed with pectin. With other fruits, you have to add pectin to make jelly or jam.

• Wikipedia: Pears, apples, guavas, quince, plums, gooseberries, and oranges and other citrus fruits contain large amounts of pectin, while soft fruits, like cherries, grapes, and strawberries, contain small amounts of pectin.
• Wikipedia: The main use for pectin is as a gelling agent, thickening agent and stabilizer in food. The classical application is giving the jelly-like consistency to jams or marmalades, which would otherwise be sweet juices.

Why Processed Lemon

Older recipes, before we had all these processed foods, would say to add lemon juice from fresh lemons. But now, given our attention to food safety, cooks use processed lemon juice for its consistent acidity; an important part to safely canning food.

My Meyer lemon bush is inconsistent, lemon to lemon, and has lower acid than Eureka or other lemons. So for today, I just used that fresh lemon for my cup of tea, and used the processed lemon juice for the jam. We bought the smallest container we could find.

Plum Jam (Small Batch Recipe)

• For 3 pints (plus a little for immediate use)
  • 3# de-seeded sliced plums
  • 3C organic granulated sugar
  • 1/2C water
  • 1/2C processed lemon juice

Jamming Process

We cleaned the counters, put down clean kitchen towels, and washed all the tools. Put two pots of water on the stove top, one for lids and one for the bottles. Heated the water to a simmer, but not boiling. Put the items in the water, lidded the pots and moved on to the next step.

Our focus was now on the jam. We started by washing, de-seeding and chopping the fruit right into the cooking pot, measuring out 3#. Then added the sugar, water, and lemon juice, and started to mix and heat to a boil. Once boiling, we turned the mix down a bit and cooked and stirred the mixture for ~30 minutes until the liquid reduced and the mixture gelled.

Then we removed the jars and lids and put them on the towels to dry a bit. And proceeded to fill the jars with jam up to ~1/2” from the top. We put the flat and screw lids on, finger-tight and upped the flame under the large pot as we put these jars back into the now boiling water. The filled jars were cooked for 10 minutes, and then were removed from the water and placed back onto the kitchen towels.

Within a few minutes we heard the “pops” as their flat lids tightened into a good seal. Pop. Pop. Pop. And they stayed on the counter until the next day to make sure they were fully cooled.

The next day I tightened the screw tops, and placed the jam into the pantry.

Taste Testing

We had made enough jam for 3 pints and ~1/3C left over. So I put that extra in a jar directly into the fridge for immediate use. So my lunch on this day was a great tasting peanut butter + plum jam sandwich.

—Patty

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