Elephant Heart Plum Jam

I'll kick this off with my latest project. I spent the entire day pureeing elephant heart plums to make jam, and only got through about half.

An elephant heart plum is a delicious, ugly looking brownish green on the outside, and a beautiful deep blood red inside. Even though they're a plum, they're actual closer in relation to an apricot I've been told.

My dad has the tree in his backyard and when I told what I was planning to do with them he was all for it! 

My mom used to make Jam and it's been years since any of us have had it because she died when I was 17 and was very ill for quite a few years before that, so amazingly I've learned all of this on my own, but it was all stuff she would have been able to teach me.

Hey I know, I'll teach you how to make it because I'm sure you all have an elephant heart plum tree just sitting bored in your backyard. Really though, I was just offended that I couldn't find a recipe for the elephant heart plum and had to use a normal (bleh) plum jam recipe. 

Canning Supplies

A pot that's called a 'canner' (I just use a tall pot)

12 canning jars with screw bands

fresh flat lids if your jars are used

canning kit which includes: 

jar funnel, jar lifter, bubble remover/headspace tool

All of which you can buy at your local Wal-Mart

Ingredients

                                 6 cups of pureed plum (you can use any kind of fruit)

1/2 cup water

1 box of Fruit-Pectin (the yellow box)

1/2 tsp. butter or margarine

8 cups of sugar (oh yeah!) 

You need to wash your jars and lids, but they also need to be warm just in case the hot jam tries to crack your glass jars. The easiest way I've found is to run them all through the dishwasher while you're doing the plums, but make sure the heated dry setting if off. 

Fill your pot, or canner, about 3/4 of the way with hot water and get it to boil, once it boils you can turn it off until you need it.

Wash your plums...

To puree the plums I used my blender but any kind of food processor will work.

Chop them in half, take out the pit and throw them in the blender. DO NOT PEEL. If your blender doesn't work extremely well you might want to cut the halves even once or twice more.

It's up to you to decide if you want your jam with fruit chunks or completely blended. I chose small chunks.

Once you get 6 cups of puree add them to an 8-10qt. saucepan with the 1/2 cup of water.

Bring this to a boil then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in the pectin and add butter to reduce foaming. Bring mixture to a rolling boil (doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. 

Stir in Sugar.

Return to a rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. 

Skim off any foam with a metal spoon.

  Ladle immediately into prepared jars and wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two piece lids. Screw bands tightly. 

Bring the water in the canner to a boil then reduce to medium low heat, then place the jars in your canner using the jar lifter. The water must cover the jars about 1 in. at least. Place as many that will comfortably fit. 

Process 10 min. Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely. You'll hear a really neat POP sound. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. (If lid springs back, lid is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.) 

And that's it! Not too bad huh? Quite a productive day if I say so myself! 

I hope you enjoyed my process of learning to make plum jam, I know I sure did. 

Feel free to request things for me to bake, cook, create, or craft. I'll try nearly anything!