Damson Jam
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!
So 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 had 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 with a small amount of water and then to pop them in a sieve which seemed to be the best of both worlds and then the liquor could be popped back in to 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. I made 8 pots of varying sizes but did measure the volume which was about 2.1 ltrs.
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!
For more plum jam inspiration you might like:
Greengage Jam and what to do when your jam is too runny!
Why not pin for later!
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.
Recipe Notes
Put 2 small plates in the freezer before you start.
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.
Rachel
04/08/2019 at 4:39 pmHi, I just made this jam. I got confused with the weight of sugar ratio to damsons so I added about 30g more to the stoned weight & it tasted fine. It did take longer to make than the time suggested because I wasn’t sure if it was setting or not so I had to keep re-boiling. I used Kilner jars that have now steamed up so I’m worrying that I should have let it cool before sealing. Fingers crossed!
Camilla
04/08/2019 at 11:19 pmHi Rachel, adding 30 g more sugar won’t really matter. You definitely put lids on while the jam is hot, I’ve never noticed steam as the jars are usually filled up so high that I don’t notice it.
Linda Hodges
02/08/2019 at 4:25 amI live in the US. Could you convert the recipe into cups. I do
not have a food scale.
Camilla
02/08/2019 at 11:12 amHi Linda, I’m afraid you just can’t accurately convert a weight to a volume. I tried measuring cups of blueberries yesterday and depending on the size of the blueberries there was a 20 gram difference in just the first 2 cups I weighed. So scale that up and you get a big error in the total weight that should be used and as jam is something where you want precised measurements I wouldn’t give out misinformation because this would affect the success of my recipe. I read last night on Facebook that Walmart sell inexpensive digital scales when someone in a preserving group flagged up that wasn’t it time all measurements of fruit and veg should be in weights and not cups. I promise you won’t look back if you buy a set. Plus it’s so much easier to tip all of your ingredients into one large bowl whether it’s flour or fruit. My blueberries were rolling off my counter and onto the floor when I was trying to pour them into a cup.
Buddy’s mummy
29/07/2019 at 5:20 pmThis looks like an easy jam to make! I’ve got a couple of damson trees which yield plenty of fruit (still eating last year’s damson chutney!) and am going to have a go at this when the fruit are ripe.
As a complete novice jam maker, I wondered what Camilla thinks about a fig, damson and blackberry jam – my figs are green and look less than appetising even though they taste nice. I wondered if mixing them with darker fruit. Any suggestions for the quantities a person might need to make this concoction?
Camilla
29/07/2019 at 9:18 pmHi Buddy, I really can’t imagine those flavours going together. If your figs taste good then I’d just make my fig jam. https://www.fabfood4all.co.uk/simple-fig-jam/
Nannette
07/05/2019 at 4:00 amWhen I initially left a comment I seem to
have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now
whenever a comment is added I get 4 emails with the exact same comment.
Is there a way you are able to remove me from that service?
Appreciate it!
Camilla
07/05/2019 at 1:27 pmHi Nannette, is there a message at the bottom of the e-mail about unsubscribing or managing your account. I haven’t seen my own e-mails but I get them when I’ve commented on other people’s blogs and was just sorting things out via an e-mail this morning.
Lisa - Allotmenteer
02/10/2018 at 7:11 pmThe Damson de-stoning tip is the best tip I have come across for ages, Many thanks for this it will cut down my de-stoning time next year. I find Damsons such a lovely fruit and have a big tree at my allotment so I’m always a little disheartened when loosing so much flesh. Not any more!!
Camilla
03/10/2018 at 12:50 amThank you Lisa, I thought it was a light bulb moment:-)
James H
14/09/2018 at 8:14 amJust tried this recipe for my first ever foray into jam making – we moved into a new house and discovered a damson tree growing wild in the field behind the house and it is dripping with ripe damsons. Followed the instructions and wow, it worked – it even set! So delicious. Thank you.
Camilla
14/09/2018 at 11:47 amYay, so pleased it worked for you and thank you for letting me know:-) Hopefully you will try some of my other wonderful jams now;-)
Jim Appleton
13/09/2018 at 12:46 pmThank you for your great article and advise. My story is, I used a potato masher to separate the stones from the flesh whilst in the pan- the wire S shaped type. It does a brilliant job without shredding the skins and leaving them more or less whole. I gently heated the 6lb of fruit with stones to release the pectin. The longer and slower its heated the more pectin is released which in turn means adding less sugar to help it set. I then spooned batches out onto a dinner plate which made it very easy to remove the stones. After I had done the whole lot it all went back into the pot to be heated with the sugar. Not very time consuming at all. I did a couple cold plate tests so I didn’t add too much sugar. I also used organic sugar which is slightly brown just for my own quirky personal taste. I have made over 40 jars so far and each time I have used less sugar with great effect.
Camilla
13/09/2018 at 7:38 pmThanks for sharing Jim. Just a word of caution not to skimp on the sugar too much as it will affect the keeping quality of your jam.
JIM
01/10/2018 at 3:19 pmThat’s more valuable advise thank you very Camilla.
Camilla
01/10/2018 at 3:52 pmPleasure:-)
Avril
08/09/2018 at 8:54 pmI have 18 lbs of damsons to make jam.can I double or treble your recipe.
Camilla
09/09/2018 at 12:10 amHi Avril, the issue with doubling or trebling a jam recipe is that you can end up with a jam that won’t set or that boils over the sides. So you could more than likely get away with upping the fruit to 2 kg which I use in my Mirabelle Plum Jam. The other solutions would be to use more than one pan or freeze the rest of your damsons for later use.
Maye
04/09/2018 at 12:58 pmThanks for your helpful tips! Looking forward to trying your recipe.
I see you don’t use preserving sugar, which I thought was advisable for damsons? Does it really not matter?
Camilla
04/09/2018 at 3:56 pmI used preserving sugar in my very first jam and seriously didn’t like the stiff set it gave so ever since I have just used lemon juice or relied on the natural pectin levels in fruit. So no you don’t need preserving sugar in this recipe!
Annie
25/08/2018 at 8:00 pmIs the weight of damsons given in ingredients with or without stones
Camilla
25/08/2018 at 9:29 pmHi Annie, the weight is for the damsons including the stones.
Annie
27/08/2018 at 9:52 amThank you Camilla. The recipe worked beautifully and the result is delicious!
Camilla
27/08/2018 at 9:59 pmYay, so glad you like it:-)