John Myers
Time to go blue! If you buy plums and damsons now, you have a good chance of stocking up on regional fruit. The sweet stone fruit is now also hanging from the branches in the home garden. Fortunately, the delicious fruits can be preserved very well: Preserving plums is easier than you think. Here we show how it’s done.
The domestic plum and damson season is picking up speed, whether in the supermarket or in your own garden. If you choose seasonal products in the fruit and vegetable department, you avoid long-distance food transport, for example by plane.
Preserve plums: Tips for buying fruit
Plums and damsons are perfect when bought when the skin is plump, yields slightly under light finger pressure, and has a whitish coating. The whitish layer should only be washed off immediately before eating, as it protects the fruit from drying out.
Fresh plums (and damsons) can be stored in the refrigerator for two to three days, depending on the variety, but a maximum of one week. Of course, plums and damsons not only taste good from hand to mouth, but also very good with meat dishes, in salads, or with goat’s cheese. They are also legendary with Kaiserschmarrn or in plum dumplings.
Boil plums: How to proceed
If you want to have some of the sweet fruit for longer, you should boil down plums and process them into a delicious compote. The best way to wake up plums is with a touch of cinnamon, which gives the stone fruit an additional tart note. Boiling or preserving in airtight jars kills bacteria and fungal spores. Properly preserved, your plum compote will keep for at least a year.
This is what you need to preserve plums:
- At least 1 kilo of plums
- 4 preserving jars, heat-resistant and easy to close (screw cap, rubber seal or sealable)
- 250 grams of preserving sugar
- 1-2 cinnamon sticks
- Optionally some cloves
How to preserve plums step by step:
- Wash and halve plums, remove stones.
- So that the preserving jars are really clean, it is best to rinse them briefly with boiling water.
- Halve the cinnamon sticks and place half a stick in a mason jar. Add a few cloves if desired.
- Then stuff the halved plums tightly into the mason jars until the jars are almost full.
- Mix the preserving sugar with 1 liter of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil if necessary (see the preserving sugar package insert) until a syrup forms.
- Pour the gelling syrup over the plums in the mason jars until the fruit is covered.
close jars tightly; Meanwhile, preheat the oven. - Fill the casserole dish, roaster, or deep baking tray (fat pan) 1-2 cm with water; Put glasses in the water.
- Then place the casserole dish or roaster on the grid and put it in the oven; Place the baking sheet directly into the oven (middle or low rack).
- Boil the plums there at 75 degrees (circulating air) for at least 30 minutes, then let them cool down.
- Your plum compote is ready!
Boil plums without sugar
If you want to do without the preserving sugar, you can do so easily – the recipe remains the same: the plums are simply poured with water and then boiled in the oven as described.
The reason: Plums contain pectin, a natural binding agent that is also sufficient for preserving. Of course, the compote is not quite as sweet without sugar.
If you want to leave out the sugar, it is advisable to clean the plums with vinegar water before preserving them. For the vinegar water, simply mix 1 part vinegar essence with 10 parts water. This keeps the fruit long after it has been boiled.
Boil plums: These are the alternatives
If you don’t feel like making compote and thus canning plums, you can …
- Also, use plums to make jam.
- Freeze plums: Pitted fruit can be frozen for up to a year.
- Incidentally, plums are not ideal for baking: they almost melt because of the high water content and their soft pulp.
- Plums, on the other hand, are excellent in the oven due to their slightly firmer flesh, because they do not lose their shape even at high temperatures.
