Plum Excited

So yesterday I had a plum delivery. I think I was given about nine pounds of plums. These plums were not just picked, but were picked about a week and a half ago. But they held up really well. I did have to throw a few out and a good handful had parts that needed to be cut out, but by and large they were still very nice. So I did a lot of chopping. I ended up with about 14-15 cups of chopped plums.

Since I already had plum sauce, plum jam, and plum syrup in my pantry, I decided to make some plum chutney. I follow Marisa McClellan's Food In Jars blog. I like that she does a lot of jams without pectin. But I found this recipe by her on another blog. She considers the recipe a small batch recipe, but really, I'm quite capable of doubling a recipe for the large quantities of plums on hand. I always find the concept of specific large or small batch preserving weird. I often double or half recipes. Or even third them depending upon what I have. Small batches are easier since things cook so much faster. Jam can be made quickly.

Large batches require a big pan. I probably should have brought out my biggest. But I used one size down. Someday I swear I'm going to buy a jam pan that has shorter sides and is very wide and has a very thick bottom. I'm thinking the ones they sell for braising would be really nice since they are so large. Anyway I'm off subject. I made chutney as you see above. The recipe gave me 4 1/2 pints. The big pint jar that I did will be for the owner of the plum tree. The rest are for me, though you never know what will end up in my gift baskets this winter. I'm guessing some rhubarb and some plum items. But who knows. I might eat it all by then.

The rest of the plums were made into sorbet. I'm packed them into pint containers for the freezer. My sorbet didn't use a recipe. You really don't need one. Fruit, sugar, maybe a little lemon juice. I used a dash of cinnamon too. Not enough to really taste in the final product, but it does add to the flavor. I would say I used about six to seven cups of plums to 1 1/2 cups of sugar. I haven't a clue how much lemon juice. But not much. Maybe a tablespoon or less. On taste testing the sugar was enough. The plums had sweetened up a lot sitting around for so long. And I did cook this sorbet. Sorbet is usually done with raw fruit. But because of the state of the plums (bird pecks and them sitting around) I figured they ought to be cooked up for safety. And honestly, I like cooked plums as much as raw plums. And the skins get cooked so they puree with the fruit better.

Above are the four canned plum products. From left to right: plum sauce, plum syrup, plum chutney, and plum jam. It is interesting that the jam at the end is the darkest. But the darker it is the more it is set. The most set is the jam, then the chutney, then the sauce, then the syrup. It could just be more liquid boiled off or more maybe plums get darker as you cook them. I guess I'll never know as there are no plums left on my counter.