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 trusty hard anondized skillet. Can’t live without it!
I love my LeCruset grill pan!
I’d be completely lost without my stockpot. It has so many uses – making homemade spaghetti sauce, boiling said spaghetti, making jams and soups. I couldn’t live without it!
I love my large skillet with lid. I use it weekly but especially at Thanksgiving when I make my family’s favorite brussel sprouts with pancetta.
I actually have two favorite pans, a 12″ Kitchenaid sauté pan and an Ikea 5 qt stock pot with pasta insert.
My stock pot.
I would be lost without my 12″ everyday pan. It was named true because I use it almost every day!
I love my well seasoned cast iron skillet.
My favorite pan is a really wide “skillet”. It’s big enough to brown meats and veggies without having them touch but the sides are big enough to turn anything into a nice stew. I use it almost every day.
I own a non-stick Analon stove top to oven casserole pan with lid….that I have had for years. I use it at least once a week. Many non stick pans have passed through my kitchen, eventually landing in the trash because of the peeling problem, but my Analon pan goes on and on. I must say that this pan is my favorite for it’s ease of use and it’s durability.
My favorite piece of cookware is my medium skillet. I’ve even started cooking pasta in it because it comes to a boil more quickly than a sauce pan.
Lately, my favorite piece of cookware is my wok. Stir-frys with fresh vegetables are my summer go-to.
Calphalon 1.5 Qrt. Saucepan. Use it every day.
I love all of my pots and pans since each was deliberately chosen, but my big cast iron skillet is so versatile and such a workhorse that it really is a favorite.
I’ll be trying the plum cardamom jam soon!
It is this small/medium enameled saucepan from my European grandmother that is perfect even though the handles been gone for years- it just cooks everything perfectly with little effort on my part.
One of my best jamming pots was scored at a garage sale. It is big and shallow, with a really heavy stainless steel bottom. I haven’t scorched anything yet!
Either my nonstick saucepan or my 10″ skillet. Funny because they’re a little too small for a lot of written recipes but I use them all the time anyway.
I have a hand me down cast iron skillet I just love!
I love my Dansk kobenstyle dutch oven…so durable and useful for so many things! Soup! Jam! Stews! Yum!
Definitely my dutch oven! I can make dinner or bake bread and it can go from the stovetop to the oven! How cool is that?
I have my go to nonstick skillet that it seems I’m always using. Love it!!
Hands down, its a 40 year old Le Creuset skillet that is a
mere 6 inches. It’s been with me through a dozen moves and remains
a delight to use.
Love my large skillet. I throw everything in there at once and dinner is done!
my favorite item is my Dutch oven. it is so versatile.
I love a good non-stick skillet for eggs, and my favorite one finally bit the dust. I bought a cheap one to replace it, but it’s just not the same.
I love my big sauté pan. I use it for everything!
My old blue le creuset Dutch oven.
I can’t go a few days without pulling out my enormous antique Lodge cast iron skillet! In fact, it rarely makes it back into the cupboard but spends most of it’s time right on my stovetop!
my twelve inch skillet that I use for nearly everything: stir fries, eggs, shrimp scampi, everything.
My favorite piece of cookware is my dutch oven, once I get it washed I put it right back to use again!
Definitely a dutch oven….the ‘utility player’ of the kitchen….stews, roasts, soups…on and on and on!
Right now I would say my favorite piece of cookware is my Dutch oven. I have been making bread and it is the perfect vessel to achieve the best crust and crumb.
I love the brown Le Crueset pot on long term loan from my sister. It’s the best for cooking rice.
Right now, my off brand stainless stock pot. It’s been getting lots of use this canning season!
My most used at the moment is my stock pot. Canning season is here! 🙂
My most used piece of cookware is my 10-inch skillet, which is perfect for so many things–from quesadillas to toasting pine nuts. But my favorite piece is my fish skillet, which was a present from some friends long ago. It’s the perfect size for smothering trout in tomatoes in the oven. Yum!
My parents recently purchased ceramic ware pots and frying pans. When I visit, I can hardly wait to use them. Great non stick option. I especially like the ceramic pots for cooking rice and noodles. Very handy.
My parents recently purchased ceramic ware pots and frying pans. When I visit, I can hardly wait to use them. Great non stick option. I especially like the ceramic pots for cooking rice and noodles. Very handy.
My big pasta pot which is just deep enough for processing jars of jam
I cook and bake all the time, but have to say the item I use the most is my cast iron skillets. I absolutely love how they cook!
My cast iron skillet(s) – not appropriate for jam recipes, though!
My favorite cookware right now is my stockpot. I’ve been a canning fool this season. It was left behind by a tenant when she moved out, she was a chef. She left several pots that I just love. Nice and heavy with very flat bottoms that work great on my glass cooktop.
My favorite is my blue enamel dutch oven, which I use for all kinds of cooking and canning.
My small Le Creuset baking pan. I wish I had more pieces!
My favorite is my giant soup pot.
I love skillets and have different kinds. If I can make a dish in a skillet, then that is where it will come together.
My favorite pan in the whole world is the Kilner Stainless Steel Jam Pan that I bought myself for my birthday last year. I use it all the time!
My cast iron skillets, hands down. Also my cast iron dutch oven for baking bread in.
My favorite pan is a good skillet. It can make so many things…..
My mom had a full set of Revere Ware pots from back in the day. The smallest pot holds maybe 1 cup, if you fill it to the top. The copper bottom has all but disappeared from use. The handle has a permanent bent. It’s easily my favorite piece of cookware. It’s been perfect for melting butter for popcorn, chocolate chips for dipping marshmallows, and peanut butter for pouring over cereal. My husband always teases me about how much faster it is to do things in the microwave. But this heats everything up more evenly, plus it’s a connection to Back Then.
My favorite piece of cookware is an inexpensive 6qt pot from Ikea. I use it weekly if not daily; for soups, spaghetti sauce, boiling water, macaroni & cheese, and countless other ways!
Hmmm.. that’s a tough one, though it probably has to be my 7.5 quart orange Le Cruset dutch oven pot…
My cast iron skillet!
Right now, my favorite piece of cookware is my omelet pan. I probably use that more than anything else, and it is usually in the drying rack or on the stove – I never seem to hang it back up because of how often it is used.
I miss my Grampy’s yellow plum tree. Sweetest plums EVER!
BTW the pan link didn’t work for me so I didn’t get a look at the giveaway. My fav is probably my 12 qt, cast iron dutch oven – indoors or out. It has traveled many miles with me.
I love my Lodge cast-iron skillet so much.
Ice cream maker, currently. I’ve been experimenting with savory vegetable-based frozen items, like tomato salsa sorbet and curried pumpkin sorbet. Yummy.
My favorite is a little Revereware pot I got from my grandma, followed closely by the Revereware copper-bottom pots from my great aunt’s house. The one from my grandma is the rice pot. Period. That’s what goes in it. Rice. The ones from my great aunt are fairly little so they tend to be my side veggie pots. Those pots are close to indestructible. I love them.
My favorite cookware is my Le Creuset stoneware baking dish – it’s the perfect aqua-green color, isn’t overly large (I am only cooking for the two of us most times) and even has a lid so it’s extra easy to store left overs. Plus it has handles and is great for bringing to pot lucks or just to use as a chip bowl.
I have a large skillet style pan that has nice 3″ sides that’s perfect for cooking down sauces, just wish I could do more then one batch at a time. Cooking down 25 pounds of tomatoes takes awhile at just a few ppounds per batch!
Cliche for this site, I know, but my big monster Ball canning pot with rack is my favorite. I don’t use it every day, but it just makes some of the larger batch canning I do sooooooo much easier.
I adore my 12-inch cast iron skillet and I use it for almost everything, but I am totally smitten with my 3 quart American Kitchen (made in the US!) stainless steel saucier. It’s perfection.
My huge Dutch oven. I got it on sale when I was 22. I make everything from curry, to
Jams to chicken soup in it. One year we even did a tiny turkey in it for thanksgiving. Every time I take it out to cook a plethora of happy memories assult me.
My nonstick Emeril skillet…I won it from a giveaway on a website (can’t remember which) years ago, and it is amazing.
Wooden spoons! I have so many but I just keep getting more!
I really love a stainless steel skillet I bought at Ikea. It’s one of their more moderately priced items (not super cheap, but pretty good quality). I use it for jam and lots of other things!
Hands down, my old cast iron skillet is my favorite piece of cookware. It gets used for damned near everything
Would not be able to live without my enameled cast iron dutch oven. So many different uses for it
I love my slow cooker. It’s not my jam-making pot, but I use it to feed the family while I’m teaching full time and I use it for my fall tomato sauce that needs to cook down overnight.
The mark-downs might be just enough to draw me into Macy’s.
Don’t think I’d make it without my stockpot!
We have an old, large enameled Dutch oven found at a flea market that gets heavy rotation for jam-making, roasting veggie, making stock, you name it. I love that it shows its age, but still does the job beautifully…
My All Clad 10 quart stock pot!!!
My Emeril chicken frier is probably my favorite – with it’s higher sides and lid, I can do alot in there! But for whatever reason, my husband hates to wash that pan! lol
My favorite piece is a French oven of unknown origin I found at Goodwill for $12!!! It is bright lemon yellow, has a funky lid & my daughters & I use it exclusively for our oatmeal making every day. It’s crazy how much just looking at it makes me smile, I feel like it was a real treasure find!
My favorite” pieces” of cookware is my 1970s batch of Cuisinart in chocolate brown!
My favorite piece of cookware, that I could not do without, is my cast iron skillet. Stove top cooking,
oven baking and camping cookouts…but a close second is the dutch oven that faithfully serves during canning season!
My favorite is my enameled cast iron dutch oven. I love to cook a pot of stew, soup, etc. and just carry it to the table for serving. It will soon enough be soup/stew days – can’t wait for the cooler days of autumn.
I love my cast iron skillet, too! Also I finally got an enameled cast iron dutch oven I’ve wanted forever… So love plum jam!
I had a clear glass stovetop pot for a long time that broke in a move. It was awesome. I loved being able to see whats happening in the pot, and teach my son about the cooking stages of things with it.
My dutch oven is my favorite kitchen accessory! I used it for making jams and jellies, roasting chicken and slow cooked pork and beef!
My favorite piece of cookware is a flat iron griddle! It was salvaged from an old, terrible waffle iron my mother threw off the deck in a fit of rage, and it has a lovely dark seasoning patina on it that make the best grilled cheese sandwiches and french toast.
I love my cast iron pans! I have a large and small skillet, and I never put them away! They live on my stovetop!
I hate to play favorites but I’d have to say my stainless soup, stew, jam, tomato sauce, pasta, bagel boiler, steamer pot…it does everything! I wan to make that plum jam by the way… it’s going in the pot next!
Fav skillet is my Grandmas 10″ cast iron fry pan!
It was my Grandmas, then my Moms and when she passed it came to me.
It is black and shiny and beautifully seasoned and I take very good care of it.
Definately my large te-fal deep 14 inch pan. It sautes, fries, reheats, and does bascially everything. It has a nice glass lid with a hole for steam to escape. This is my second one as I wore the first one out. It gets almost daily use with our family of 5.
My Vitamix blender! Closely followed by my pressure canner
My favorite piece of cookware is the pressure cooker. Makes almost anything, and fast.
My 12-inch saute pan! I make everything in it.
Though I have a not-so-secret plan to abscond with my boyfriend’s enameled cast iron pot.
I think it’s my stock pot I found on sale about ten years ago. It’s not anything fancy, but I use it for everything from soup, to canning, to baking no-knead bread.
my favorite cookware is a pan i got at a garage sale actually! ;D it looks like it’s from the seventies. olive green on the outside of the pan with a wooden handle. it’s nice and large and cooks everything evenly.
I love my covered enamelled cast iron dutch oven. I use it for no-knead bread and for stews.
A lovely yellow enamel pot I picked up from a local resale shop. Best pot ever!
My favorite piece of cookware is an old stock pot I’ve had for over 30 years – it’s got a couple of dings and the lid doesn’t fit on exactly right, but I love that old stock pot and plan to keep it until I die!
My favorite piece of cookware is my enameled cast-iron Dutch oven given to me by my sister-in-law. It makes me feel like a very capable cook!
My stock pot for canning!
I have a steel cookie sheet my dad made in the steel mill he worked at before I was born. It has not seen a silver color that I can ever recall. But it bakes the best cookies, bread, roasted veggies ever.
Lately it’s my bread maker – been using it to make pizza dough and bread dough, but not actually to bake the bread. Definitely the best way to go!
It’s tough to decide on a favorite, but I picked up a cheap, orange/red LeCruset oval stock pot at a damaged goods store years ago, and used it for just about everything. It’s super heavy but works so well!
My favorite pot is my Le Crueset Dutch oven
I love my stock pot with only one handle given to me by my friend. can’t wait to try the jam