In reply to Daisy.

I discovered that pectin level reduces the riper the fruit. I picked mine late and it needed lemon juice++ to gel and a lot of boiling which spoilt the colour and altered the flavour. Nice though. Memo to self – next year pick early!

Brilliant tip, thank you!

Hi Cindy, no, you need to pot up the hot jam into hot jars. Heating the jars not only completes the sterilisation process but also prevents thermal shock (which could result in the glass shattering).

Can I sterilise just using dishwasher on high temp ?

Hi Ben, Damsons are really high in pectin so you would not use jam sugar or could end up with concrete jam. I don’t use jam sugar in any of my jam recipes but for low pectin fruits like strawberries I add lemon juice and sometimes the lemon skin.

Looks great, I noticed you just used granulated sugar and not jam sugar with the added pectin, is this because the fruit has enough to set the jam without the additional pectin?

I suppose you could use jam sugar but would need to reduce the rolling boil time to account for the additional pectin quantities?

Thanks

You are lucky to have a tree that produces edible damsons as even a Google search says they too astringent to eat raw. My parents damson tree is very tall and thin so the only way to harvest them is by shaking the branches (picture me on a ladder with a hoe) so I use what falls. There would be no way of hand picking more than a handful of just underripe and when I did try to pit them the flesh clung to the stone like a vice. A Google search also backs this up. But I’m glad you have a system that works for you so it puzzles me as to why you would be reading my recipe when you have you own family one that you’re happy with? I have family recipes and can’t say I’ve ever searched for them or gone to another blog to tell someone how my mother made the recipe and that what they are saying about the ingredients is factually wrong. It’s called flexing and uncalled for, especially when you’re in the wrong. I am a pedant for detail so when I say something it’s always backed up with research.

I find damsons lovely to eat raw and not sour at all. Its easier to stone the damson when slightly under ripe as the flesh clings to a stone when ripe . I am sure there’s many different types of damson though but this is just my experience with over 30 yrs making jam . I also remove the stones after cooking as this is what works for me best and how I was taught as a young child. Damson jam is a family tradition for us

Thank you. They were most definitely ripe. We were picking them off the lawn and shaking the tree. Take a look at the pitting picture and you can see the almost mushy flesh attached to the stones. If they weren’t ripe they would have been impossible to pit as the stone would grip on like a vice. This is just a variety of damson that looks like this, I now there are others that have a more even colour. And as for the sharp flavour, damsons are known for this and that’s why they’re more of a cooking plum than an eating one. My dad just rang me yesterday asking if I wanted some as they’re currently falling onto my parents’ lawn.

Good recipe, but those damsons don’t look even nearly ripe. Think that accounts for the sharp flavour!

That’s so wonderful to hear Allie. Removing the stones does take a long time, especially if you have a bigger haul of Damsons. But it’s kind or therapeutic I find. Hope you make some more of my jam recipes now, I have plenty of them:-)

I used this recipe having never made jam before – and I now have jam! I had to adapt ratios for my large damson haul and this was simple to do.
It did take me four hours this time () but I’m sure that with practice I will be able to speed up my fumbling process.
Thanks for a straightforward and clear recipe, I’m sure I will be making more jam in future.

Thank you Sarah, so glad you like the recipe and have devised a prep method to suit you:-)

Hello Camilla, I’ve just finished making a batch of damson jam, I make it each year. First time using your recipe and it worked brilliantly. The suggestion of cooking the stones and their remaining fruit separately; before passing through a sieve into the main pan of fruit is a genius hack. It made the process so much simpler. I have never managed to remove them with the Oxo stone pitter. I was delighted to find an alternative method that actually worked. I just cut as much flesh as possible off the stone and put in one pan and put the remaining stones in another as suggested. I used 1kg fruit, 1kg sugar and 300ml of water, it set well after 12 minutes without any need to reboil. Only another 5kg of damsons to go … Thank you Camilla 🙂

Awesome Vikki, lovely when things just come together like they were meant to be:-)

,

Great Sylvia, so happy that my jam recipe has reached your shores:-)

Hi from New Zealand. The birds got our first crop but I was onto it last year and made some lovely jam. I have beaten them again this year too. The pits were a hassle last year but I will try the microwave and whisk this year.

Hi Judith, great to hear from the other side of the world! I have the same problem with my cherry tree but am left with zero fruit:-)

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:-)

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.

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:-)

Hi Paulette, the skins are in there, they just break down quite a bit.

Yay, so glad you like the recipe and my pitting hack:-)

I made this jam this afternoon and it was so easy using the cherry pitter. I’ll definitely make some more.

Yes and same with apricot pits, even though they taste great in the jam

Might taste nutty but contains a chemical amalgdalin which coverts to cyanide in our bodies! Not recommended especially with children.

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:-)

What a lovely story, hope you get hold of those Damsons for a trip down memory lane:-)

Thank you Yvonne, so glad you like the recipe and my tip:-)

Great recipe and great stone tip

Thank you Susi, necessity is the mother of all invention as they say:-)

Thank you Lou:-)

So glad you like it Catherine:-)

Thankyou, jam is good.

If you’re confident that the fruit is ok inside (or don’t care!), I cook my damsons then leave them to cool. Once they’ve cool enough to handle I pop on a pair of rubber gloves (or even go in bare handed) and rummage through for the stones. Once removed, if I want keep the skins, I use a stick blender to blitz the fruit to a purée. Then I carry on as normal for a jam. A stick of cinnamon or star anise is nice added to the fruit as it cooks if you want something a little festive. Just remember to remove with the stones

Excellent Emma. My parents’ Damson tree is very old and full of blighted damsons which is why I don’t take any chances. Hence by removing stones I can throw out all the bad ones. If you don’t have that issue then that’s great, I’m just here sharing what I do and everyone can do what they prefer in their kitchens:-)

Hi Cherryl, making jam in a bread maker is not something I have any experience of but after Googling it seems possible in theory.