Our neighbor Dino brought over a big bag of plums that came from a tree of theirs and I thought, why not make some plum butter? Did I mention what kind of plums they were? Fucking plums. They are just a little bigger than cherries, and I had to take the pit out of each one of them -4 pounds worth! I guess I shouldn't complain too much - at least I didn't have to peel them. My recipe called for 4 pounds, but I realized that is probably for regular sized plums, which means that I probably only ended up with about 2 pounds of fruit and once this was cooked down, put through a food mill and canned - I ended up with only 3 tiny jars. Time-wise, each jar is probably worth a hundred bucks - anybody want one?! It does taste pretty good though... My advice - even if you get "free" fucking plums - buy large ones to make this butter. On another note, last week they gave me a HUGE zucchini, I guess to make up for the plum size - zucchini bread is in the works...
Plum Butter should make about 5 cups
1 vanilla bean
4 pounds plums, pitted and cut into wedges
2 and half cups sugar
couple tablespoons lemon juice
In a large pot add all ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring often, for about 5 min. or until they are soft. Set aside the vanilla bean and put the rest through a food mill. Return to the pot with the vanilla bean - scraping it to get the seeds out and cook on low for an hour and half to two hours or until it's thick. To test for the right consistency, chill a little plate and put a spoonful of butter on the plate, if after 1 min it remains firm and not runny you are ready to can. Hot water bath for 10 min.
Post note: Dino and Wendy - thanks for thinking of me! Really!
Post, Post note: Tigress - Please see my peach post too!
I've got lots of fucking plums here in the south of France to try this recipe with. :) Thanks
ReplyDeleteT
For next year: there's a lot easier way to deal with the plum pits, one that I figured out after spending way too long pitting the tiny plums that grow on a tree in my driveway. Cook the whole, washed plums with a little bit of water until soft. Then press through the holes of a colander or very coarse mesh strainer. That will leave the skins and pits behind with little effort. If you want the skins for some reason, you can fish them out of the pit+skin residue.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the "little" plum advice - but since having done this twice now (had another neighbor with one of these trees 2 years ago - long enough for me to forget what a pain it was) I think I'll be sticking to the larger variety of plums. I still think you just don't get enough "meat" out of the little buggers!
ReplyDeleteTo Gypsy - glad to hear you have this variety too!
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, couldn't you have left the pits in since you were running it through a food mill? Wouldn't the mill catch the pits?
ReplyDeleteTo Zaydia - the food mill has a very low clearance on the part that rotates and pushes the pulp through, so the pits would be caught, but it would stop up the mill. I guess you could do it through one of those cone type chinoise, but like I said - bigger fruit is the ticket!
ReplyDeleteUpdate: last year I got a combo cherry/plum pitter - and this works perfectly! So bring on your f**king plums!
ReplyDelete