Damson Jam is beautifully tart and has a wonderful unique flavour. Perfect for using up your windfalls!
Today I’m re-posting my Damson Jam which was published in 2013 when I didn’t own or know how to use a professional camera. This recipe has been one of my most popular jams ever since so it was high time I did a re-shoot and gave it the presentation it deserved! I hope you approve.
I have a confession to make, in the 40 years that my parents have lived in their current house I have never taken any notice of their Damson tree.
When I was growing up we had a Victoria plum tree and a huge pear tree which dominated the garden but the Damson tree just minded its own business in one of the borders.
The Victoria plum tree and the pear tree have long since languished but the Damson tree has soldiered on.
So it took my new love of jam making for me to actually look forward to the harvest of Damsons that I’ve half-heartedly accepted bags of in the past. Yes shocking I know!
As with all my jams I like to have a good old research of my topic and find the best and most efficient way to make my next jam. It became apparent that this wasn’t a simple jam to make like all the other ones I’d made.
With Damsons you have the sticky issue of the stone to contend with. Hence there were recipes where you either laboriously cut them out at the beginning or you have to wade through hot jam at the end to remove them.
Kirstie Allsopp even suggested counting the plums so that you could be sure to have removed all the stones! Then there were useful tips I found like agitating the plums once cooked with a whisk to help loosen the stones before fishing out.
Another tip I found which would have worked if my plums had all been really ripe, was to remove the stone by gripping the opposite ends of the Damson and squeezing thus releasing the stone. Sadly this only worked on a few of my plums and most of them were not ripe enough for this method.
I came up with what I thought was a stroke of genius! I used my Oxo Goodgrips Cherry/Olive pitter as it is so sturdy and proved perfect for the job.
I decided I didn’t fancy fishing for stones at the end of the jam making process with rubber gloves and I’m really glad I opted to remove them beforehand.
If I hadn’t I wouldn’t have known about the 3 rotten plums that had looked fine from the outside but were totally brown on the inside which would have spoiled the jam.
The only problem with pitting the Damsons beforehand is that there is a certain amount of plum still stuck to the stone, which would also happen when using a knife or the squeeze technique.
Not wanting to waste any flesh I decided to simmer my stones in a small amount of water.
Then I popped them in a sieve which seemed to be the best of both worlds. The liquor was then put back into the pan with the simmered Damsons before adding the sugar.
As Damsons are so delightfully full of pectin there was no need to add any other fruit or lemon juice to this recipe, they are the perfect fruit to make jam or jelly with.
I had never eaten Damson jam before and it has a unique sharp edge to it which I have enjoyed especially at breakfast time.
This recipe made 8 jars of varying sizes, I did however measure the volume, which was about 2.1 litres.
For more plum jam recipe inspiration you might like:
I love chatting jam, so if you have any questions or want to tell me how you got on then do fire away in the comment section below!
I’m sure you’ll love my Damson Jam recipe so do leave a comment and rating below when you make it. Plus if you’re on social media tag @FabFood4All as I love seeing my recipes come to life.
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Damson Jam
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Damsons (stoned after weighing)
- 1.875 kg Granulated Sugar
- 450 ml Water + 20 ml to simmer with damson stones
Instructions
- Cook the damsons in a preserving pan with the water gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- At the same time cook the stones in a separate medium sized pan with 20 mls of water for 20 minutes.
- When the stones have cooked put them in a sieve and squeeze with the back of a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes. (There will be clear liquid and a little puree, no need to squeeze until dry).
- Add this liquor to the cooked Damsons and then add the sugar.
- Heat slowly until all the sugar has dissolved stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Bring to the boil slowly and then time a rolling boil for 13 minutes (make sure you stir with a wooden spoon regularly to stop it catching and burning).
- Take off the heat and test a teaspoon of jam on a cold plate, leave for a couple of minutes and if it crinkles when your finger is pushed through it it’s ready.
- If not boil for 2 more minutes at a time repeating the test.
- Once ready pot up into sterilised jars and put on a clean lid. Makes 2.1 ltrs or 8 jars of varied sizes.
Notes
Sterilise jars by washing or dishwashing, filling with boiling water, emptying and then placing in oven for 20 minutes at 140°C then leave in oven until jam is ready. Wash the lids, sterilise with boiling water and then leave to drain.
Lee Sharrocks
First time making jam and a little disappointed. Great instructions although for me the seed process yielded little extra. Before I added the sugar the jam tasted lovely and tart but with the addition of sugar I felt there was far too much sweetness and it lost any character. Will try again though and will use 1:1 ratio of fruit:sugar which seems to be fairly standard from what I’ve read.
Camilla
Hi Lee, as your stones didn’t yield much flesh I’m assuming they were a different variety of damson to what I used, perhaps a Merryweather which is the sweetest of the Damson family and might then account for you thinking the jam was too sweet. This is one of my oldest and most popular recipes and no-one else has ever said its too sweet. Another possibility is that we all have varying taste palates (I used to work at Birds Eye Wall’s and was tested for this when I became a voluntary taste tester), so you’re tasting this sweeter than others. So, by all means try it again with the 1:1 ratio:-)
Beate
Damsons taste even better if you’ve found trees in a field and climb over a stone wall to pick them!!
I always have cooked the whole damsons from tree to sink to pot and then when the’re squashed away the stones, gloved up, enjoying the madshiness!thank you for your tip of then cooking stones again for a bit of extra pectin!#lovedamsonjam
Camilla
Yes that sounds fab Beate, a little adventure first always adds to the enjoyment:-) The advantage of pitting first is that you can catch any bad damsons before they join the pot:-)
Paulette
What happens to the skin your jam looks beautiful with no skin in it
Camilla
Hi Paulette, the skins are in there, they just break down quite a bit.
JANE HORAN
I made this jam this afternoon and it was so easy using the cherry pitter. I’ll definitely make some more.
Camilla
Yay, so glad you like the recipe and my pitting hack:-)
Steve
I freeze my Damsons and then after defrosting they are slightly soft, I then cook them with stones in and push the mush through a colander or perforated steel utensil container, leaving the stones behind, i then finish off cooking and adding sugar etc before jarring up, too fiddly to de-stone by hand that’s for sure, plums not so bad .
Camilla
Aah, but it’s so relaxing Steve, while you’re pitting all those Damsons you’re using your hands and brain/eye co-ordination and nothing else matters in the world at the moment. But if speed is an issue I’d prefer to do like in my Mirabelle Plum Jam recipe which I remade yesterday where I just cooked the 2 kg of fruit and used a metal whisk to loosen the stones, spooned them out and then popped the stones in a sieve to get every last bit of juice out of them (will be adding that bit to the instructions). Happy that you have a method that you’re happy with:-)
Angie Wright
I’m hoping to get hold of some damsons this year and make jam. My Grandma used to make it, and she would crack some of the stones with a hammer and remove the kernel to put in the jam. there would probably 5-6 kernels per jar, labour intensive yes. But wow! the gloriously nutty flavour when you got one of those kernels. Excellent idea with the cherry pitter, I’ll bear that in mind.
Camilla
What a lovely story, hope you get hold of those Damsons for a trip down memory lane:-)
Spongemum
Might taste nutty but contains a chemical amalgdalin which coverts to cyanide in our bodies! Not recommended especially with children.
Suzanne
Yes and same with apricot pits, even though they taste great in the jam
Yvonne
Great recipe and great stone tip
Camilla
Thank you Yvonne, so glad you like the recipe and my tip:-)
Susi
Great tip about cooking stones in a little water and then sieving the resulting puree back into the damsons before adding the sugar – so much easier than laboriously sifting them out of the jam later.
Camilla
Thank you Susi, necessity is the mother of all invention as they say:-)
Lou B
Great recipe, my tip for stoning damsons.
Put in microwave for a few minutes only. I did 3 kilos for 5 minutes.
They swell up n soften but don’t cook, then the stones just pop out…..life’s to short for counting ,
Camilla
Thank you Lou:-)