The first homemade jam I ever tasted was made with homegrown plums. I was just four or five years old and the trees in our backyard were having a bumper year. My mom picked enough to fill her yellow enamel colander, gave them a good rinse under the tap, and turned them in sweet, slightly drippy preserves. We ate those plums over pancakes and with oatmeal every chance we got.
Though I will often tell people that blueberries are my foundational fruit (and they were the star in my very first solo batch of jam), there is something about the flavor of plum jam that makes my brain go, “ah yes, THIS is what homemade jam should taste like.”
I recently made my first batch of plum jam for this season (I was asked by Anolon gourmet cookware to develop this particular recipe), from the same kind of sturdy black plums that used to grow in our southern California yard. I added a little ground cardamom for extra depth and I cooked the whole thing in the 7.5 quart wide stock pot from the Anolon Advanced line. Though I don’t normally gravitate towards non-stick cookware for jam making, the width and low walls of the pan made it irresistible.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post (hopefully that was clear before you got to this disclosure statement). Anolon has compensated me for the creation of the plum jam recipe. They sent me the stockpot in which I made the jam (I did really like it, though), and they’re providing the cookware set for the giveaway. The thoughts and words are still all entire mine.
Plum Cardamom Jam
Ingredients
- 5 pounds plums
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Wash plums well and cut them in half to remove pits. Slice the plums into thin half moons and heap them into a low, wide pan.
- Add the sugar and stir to combine. Cover the pan and let the plums macerate for at least an hour.
- When the plums are quite juicy and most of the sugar has dissolved, remove the cover from the pan and place it on the stove.
- Add the cardamom and lemon juice and bring the fruit to a boil.
- Cook the fruit at a controlled boil, stirring regularly, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the plums soften and the syrup thickens. You’ll know when the jam is done because it will become more resistant to stirring, and when you pull the spoon out of the pan, the droplets will be thick and slow moving.
- While the plums cook, prepare a boiling water bath canner and 8 half pint jars.
- When the jam is done, remove the pan from the heat. Funnel it into the prepared jars.
- Wipe the rims, apply the heated lids and clean rings, and process the closed jars in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes (do not start your timer until the pot returns to a full, rolling boil).
- Once the time is up, remove the jars from the canner and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. The lids should seal promptly and will often make a pinging or popping sound as the vacuum forms. When the jars are sealed, the center of the lids will be concave and when pressed, the lid will not move or wiggle.
My favorite is my stockpot. I use it for processing my jelly jars as well as make stock. I just throw some bands in the bottom and put the jelly jars on top. It is so much nicer than dragging out my large canner. I also like my jelly pot as well. I use both pots a lot.
My grandma gave me her cast iron chicken fryer with lid. I don’t use it often but when I do I like to think of her and all the food she made.
I love my cast iron skillet.
My favorite pan is my dutch oven.
My cast iron Dutch oven is my favorite! I love making soups in it!
My favorite….dutch oven, of course!
Dutch oven. No contest.
I’m in love with my stand mixer but what probably gets the most use is my small nonstick frying pan that I mainly use for eggs over easy and for argentine-style tortillas (what most people probably know as fritattas).
What I use most in the kitchen, however, are a small chef’s knife and my all time favorite tomato knife.
I use my enamal lined dutch oven the most. It is a beautiful blue and looks so pretty with jammy jam bubbling away in it.
All time favorite is my dutch oven. It is so versatile, I can’t live without it!
I inherited my grandmother’s cast iron Dutch oven. I use it for everything from making soup, cooking roasts, canning jam and frying chicken. It’s over 50 years old and still looks new!
My pots and pans are all pretty old as I have not been much of a cook until now. So I am in the process of replacing everything – I think I have had it all since I got married 29 years ago! I am enjoying the process of cooking now more than ever. I guess my favorite is my stock pot as I like to make soups etc., that I can then freeze for later.
I love my 10″ square cast iron skillet. I use it everyday and never leaves my stovetop.
All clad 10 inch stainless steel skillet with straight sides and lid. Great for pasta, rice, veggies, searing meats etc. Goes from stove top to oven I have two and use at least one every day.
I have an All-Clad Dutch oven that I adore for its versatility. I feel like I can do anything in it. It’s also my main pot for cooking jam!
As a side note, I can’t wait to try the plum cardamom jam recipe. When I was a child, my family mostly preserved food in the freezer, but we made plum jelly every year (until the deer found our plum orchard). We’d put up dozens of jars a year and eat it all year long. It’s a smell that permutes my childhood memories, still. For years after we stopped beating the deer to the plums, we had jelly for sandwiches. Now that I’m a canner, I prefer making fruit jams to fruit jellies (partially for laziness – I hate the straining process – and partially because I love fruit bits). But last year when I had the chance to buy some plums, I couldn’t resist making a couple of batches of plum jelly. It was more work than jam, and hair-raising because I wanted it to come out right *so badly*, and was so afraid the jelly would end up not setting, or be murky and clouded. But it was worth every bit of the work when I was looking at those lovely, perfectly crystalline jars of plum jelly.
It was a good moment. Making plum jam will be the best of both worlds!
My jam pot
My favorite is a stock pot. I use it for making goat cheese and soups and stews. Could not be without it.
I have a cast iron Dutch oven we got as a wedding gift, that I’ve used over and over through the years. I love that thing!
My clay pot! It is such a fun way to cook, is beautiful to look at, and makes anything and everything turn delicious.
My favorite piece of cookware is my dear mother-in-law’s stainless steel pie pan which we inherited when she passed away ten years ago. My wild black raspberry pies and quiches bake so evenly using her pan. I think of her every time I use it. I am forever scouring garage sales and resale shops for another one!
I love the cast iron dutch oven we purchased recently. It’s oval and my husband uses it for almost everything.
My recent new favorite for small batch jam is my Wolfgang Puck breadmaker. It has a jam setting for those little batches of improvisational fruit jam.
As an aside, I love my new Dessert Bullet…..no more wasted bananas!!!
My favorite is my Le Creuset dutch oven. Still in love with it after many years.
I love ALL my kitchen tools, well, almost all. But I absolutely love my cast iron dutch oven and skillet. They are great because they go on the stove top or in the oven. They just cook so well and evenly, and clean easily too.
Skillet for sure!
I love my cast iron skillet, even if it’s a pain to lug around.
Absolute favorite thing is a small-ish Le Creuset round pot that is just the right size for any meal for my family from curries to pasta sauces. And it is bright red. What is not to love!
My favorite is a stainless steel shallow skillet I got at a yard sale. It makes the perfect scrambled eggs. Thanks!
My favorite is my Towncraft stainless steel 5 quart pot. I even use it to waterbath my small jars of jam.
My Calphalon stainless steel saute pan…I use is most every day. I don’t even put it away…it lives on top of my stove.
My favorite is my skillet pan which I pretty much use for everything!!
The pressure cooker I got from my husband’s grandma. It takes all the time out of cooking beans!
Hmm…it is a toss-up between my stainless steel stock pot and my cast iron skillet.
My favorite is a pan I inherited from an elderly neighbor, sold as a chicken fryer. I like the width, the low sides, and that it has a lid. I cook everything in it.
Staub stockpot. Does it all, does it well. Pricey, but worth it and never need more than one.
a square “pizza” stone that i bake everything on! it comes out so evenly cooked and after 10 years its seasoned perfectly!!
Dutch oven, hands down. It’s ancient, but we literally do everything in it, including making jam (i know, discoloration, etc. but it’s so heavy the jam never burns!).
I have this old copper bottom pot that my mom gave me when I got married. It’s the perfect pot for getting the right saute on vegetables. Specially for Indian food.
I love my huge stainless steel pressure canner and have used it for many years. I fear it’s time for some new canning equipment as the pressure gauge is a bit wobbly now.
i bought a set of japanese small enameled pots at an estate sale. they are orange and nest, so they can be separate units: small pot, small frying pan. or, the frying pan is the lid. or, the frying pan is the top of the (wee) double boiler. love. it. also, so cheery and bright!
My Staub 4 qt round enameled cast iron dish. Its a jam pot, bread baker, skillet, etc….
Well, actually it’s my 4th burner pot, that you recommended. I use that thing all the time. And on the rare occasions that it’s back in the cabinet, my toddler pulls it out, puts his matchbox cars in the steamer basket and carries it around. Good thing it’s a sturdy pot!
I love my cast iron skillet. I use it more than probably every other pan in my kitchen combined!
It’s all about a Dutch Oven, right? It even sounds warm and delilcious!
My favorite cookware is my spagetti pot. I put 3 pans together from goodwill. I use it for pasta and blanching, and anything I have to cook and strain. I love that they fit together like they were made to.
My favorite is a 4 qt Cuisinart that we use for everything.
Stock pot as I love to make soup
I have been getting so much use out of my giant pressure canner this year. Not just for pressure canning, but just as a giant pot to sterilize, water bath, pressure cook…. It’s a great multi-use piece of equipment.
My cast iron skillet gets the most use year round. This summer, as I’ve explored new canning recipes, I’ve been getting a lot of use out of a medium sized stockpot; it is just the right size for water batch canning a few jars at a time.
I have never used a dutch oven, reading through the replays – I’m missing out.