Plum Jam

Today's project was plum jam.



The 4 jars on the left had a tsp. of butter added to the cooking stage and resulted in an attractive, clear gel. The 4 jars on the right were done without the tsp. of butter and they came out a bit foamy.


I found several good recipes and after studying them I took some small liberties to suit my own taste.
My own recipe looks something like this:
1 batch= 6 cups of blanched, pitted, peeled and chopped plums
2 tbls. lemon juice
1 1/2 pkgs. no sugar needed pectin
1 cup honey (instead of 4 cups of granulated sugar)

I had 24 med. plums which made 12 cups of chopped plums.
I ran two separate batches since every recipe said to keep the batches between 6-8 cups each. This is so the pectin can set up.
I also put half of each batch through my blendtek mixer so that it was part smooth and part chunky.
The jam was poured through a funnel into the jars which had just come out of the dishwasher. The lids were soaked in very hot water.
Finally I put all the jars in my steamer canner for about 20 minutes.