Damson and Apple Jam Recipe

This is a wonderfully tart jam, quick to reach setting point, and a beautiful rich colour.  One of my favourites!!

For a little more information you might want to look here:

1 lb 8 oz Damsons ( mine were a mixture of very ripe, to only just squishy – weighed once stoned, or 2 lb 2 oz if not stoned before)

1 lb 8 oz Cooking apples (peeled and cored weight)

2 lb 12 oz Granulated Sugar

15 fl oz water

Before you start, rinse some jam jars (this makes 6 or seven jars of jam depending on the size of your jars) and turn the oven on just before you start heating things up in the pan – 100°C for about 10 minutes into the cooking time of the fruit.   Also pop a couple of desert spoons in the freezer for when you want to check setting point.

Put the stoned damsons, chopped apples and water in a preserving pan, or heavy bottomed saucepan, and bring slowly to the boil – making sure that you keep stirring gently so that it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.

When pulped up as much as you would like, add the sugar and bring back to the boil slowly, again making sure that you keep stirring it.    Bubble away and every 5 minutes check the setting point by getting one of the cold spoons out of the freezer;  dipping it in the jam briefly and then putting it on a saucer or something nearby to cool slightly; then see if the jam has made a skin that wrinkles when you push it along the spoon slightly- that will make a smashing set jam.

Pour it into your sterilised jars, pop a wax disk on if you have any, and screw the lids on tightly.  You can use the cellophane lids, but I prefer a metal lid as it keeps for longer, and stacks better under the stairs.