Cherry plum jam: cooking secrets, benefits, harvesting for future use

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Cherry plum jam goes great with homemade cakes. On a cold winter day, it can turn evening tea into a small celebration thanks to its amber color and summer aroma. Cherry plum retains vitamins and expressive taste even after prolonged heat treatment. Knowing the features of this fruit, you can easily make cherry plum jam for the winter and delight your home with delicious desserts during the cold season.

Benefits of cherry plum

Doctors advise eating cherry plum for those who suffer from gastrointestinal disorders and liver diseases. This fruit is useful for pregnant women and convalescent patients. Cherry plum is rich in vitamins and microelements, which are especially needed in winter. Cherry plum jam is a tasty and reliable way to avoid seasonal beriberi.

Preparatory stage

Some varieties of cherry plums simply cannot be pitted without preliminary heat treatment. Typically, these fruits are used to make compotes, canning along with the seeds. But these sweet and fragrant fruits are sogood in preserves and jams! Preparing jam is a great way to harvest cherry plum, because the features of the process involve getting rid of the seeds.

If you are using a variety that splits easily into halves, peel the fruit ahead of time. This is the only thing that needs to be done at the preparatory stage. Seedless cherry plum jam can be prepared from different varieties of these fruits. The skin does not need to be removed, it will become quite soft during cooking.

Proportions of products for jam and marmalade

Usually, for making jams, fruits and sugar are taken in equal parts. But cherry plum contains a large amount of fructose, so in order to make pitted cherry plum jam or marmalade, other proportions are needed.

Usually, 600-700 grams of sugar is taken per kilogram of stoned fruit. Much depends on the variety of cherry plum, because some of its species are sour. And you should not forget about your own culinary preferences. If you do not like too sweet desserts, follow the proportion 1:0, 6. But the sweet tooth may well bring its amount even to a ratio of 1:1. If you are using a sweet variety of fruit, you can add a few slices of lemon or orange to the prepared jam. Water for these juicy fruits can not be used at all, they have enough natural moisture.

The process of making jam with syrup

Plum jam will be even tastier if the syrup is boiled separately from the slices. For this recipe, a variety fromwhich you can easily take out the bones. It is best to do this in the evening. Cut the cherry plum into halves, put in a refractory dish in which the jam will be prepared. Sprinkle with sugar and leave until morning. After a few hours, the pieces of cherry plum will simply drown in their own juice, which is released very quickly when interacting with sugar. In the morning, they must be caught with a slotted spoon and transferred to a clean, dry dish. Put the syrup with dissolved sugar on the fire, boil, stirring constantly. Let it boil, and then stand for about 20 minutes. Repeat the procedure 3 times. After that, pour cherry plum into the syrup and cook the jam for 3 days, bringing it to a boil twice a day. The syrup prepared in this way turns out to be thick, homogeneous, similar to honey. Immediately after the last boil, pour the jam into sterile jars, seal and cover with a blanket. Transfer cooled jars to the pantry.

Cooking jam

If you decide to make jam from cherry plum, from which it is difficult to remove the bones, you will have to tinker a little longer. Dissolve three kilograms of sugar in 2 liters of water. Warm up over medium heat. Add 5 kg of fruit. To make them release juice faster, pierce them with a needle or simply mash them with a pestle. Warm up the jam without boiling. Repeat the procedure several times until the fruits soften. The next step is the grinding process. To do this, it is better to use a colander with a large mesh. The jam retains temperature for quite a long time, so try not to touch the mass with your hands. Use a spoon or ladle. Rub the fallen pulp through a sieve, and the bonesremove immediately. When the whole mass is frayed, put the jam on the fire and boil again. Continue until the product reaches the desired thickness.

Cherry plum jam in a slow cooker

If you have modern kitchen appliances at your disposal, the process can be accelerated and simplified. You can make jam in just a couple of hours. Throw a kilogram of fruits with seeds into boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes, then cover with cold water. Now you can easily remove the bones. Put the cherry plum pulp into the multicooker bowl, add 800 grams of sugar. Set the "Baking" mode and cook the jam for 45 minutes. If desired, you can puree the mass with a blender and get jam. It can be served immediately or sealed in a jar for the winter.