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Yellow Plum Jam with Vanilla

Source of Recipe

From "Preserving by the Pint" by Marisa McClellan


Recipe Introduction

"Plum jam tastes like childhood to me. When I was very young, my family lived in a house with three plum trees (two red, one yellow) scattered around the yard and every other year, we spent three weeks wading through a sea of plums. We'd eat them until we couldn't bear to look at another and then my mom would make enough jam to last until the trees ripened again."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 1 dry quart yellow plums (about 2 pounds)
â—¦ 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
â—¦ 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
â—¦ Juice of ½ lemon


Recipe

Prepare a boiling water bath and two half-pint jars. Place two lids in a small saucepan of water and bring to a gentle simmer. Wash, pit, and chop the plums. Place them in a medium bowl with the sugar and vanilla seeds and bean. Let the fruit rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

To cook, scrape the fruit into a large skillet, add the lemon juice, and place over medium-high heat. Stirring regularly, bring the fruit to a boil and cook until it bubbles and looks quite thick, 10 to 12 minutes. It's done when you pull a spatula through the jam and it doesn't immediately rush in to fill the space you've cleared.

Remove the jam from the heat and fish out the vanilla bean. Funnel into the prepared jars, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes 2 (half-pint) jars