Damson Preserve Recipe – Damson Jam

Autumn is a fantastic time of year as it’s the season of fruit. One of the most delicious fruit that ripens at this time of year is the damson – a type of plum. It is bursting with flavour – sweet and just a little tart. Damsons are related to bullace, which are slightly smaller in size, and sloes which are much smaller and mouth-puckeringly tart/sour. The best thing to do with sloes is to make sloe gin. But damsons and bullace can be used together to make a delicious damson preserve. Our recipe is so simple it has just three ingredients… and one of those is water.

Damsons aren’t the sort of fruit that you can easily find at supermarkets. We are lucky to have a damson tree and a local park where we can forage for damsons and bullace. These fruits are definitely worth seeking out if you can. But if you can’t find them, this recipe is just as good with plums.

One of the great things about damsons is that they are naturally super-high in pectin, which ensures that your jam will set beautifully.

A note for our American readers: when we say damson jam, we mean damson jelly.

Damson Jam Ingredients

Damsons or bullace or a mix of the two

Sugar – the same weight as your stoned fruit.

A splash of water.

Our damson (left below) and bullace (right below) haul came to 750g, so we weighed out 750g sugar

Damson Jam Preserve Method

Pick your damsons or bullace and give them a rinse under the tap.

Many people don’t stone the fruit and leave the stones in the jam because stoning them is a bit of a faff. But we don’t want nasty surprises when eating our jam, so we take some time to remove the stone from the fruit. If the fruit is ripe enough it doesn’t take long.

Weigh the fruit. Measure the same weight in sugar.

Place the fruit in the pan and add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan – so that the fruit and sugar won’t burn.

Add the sugar and bring the mixture to the boil on the highest heat.

Make sure the mixture continues to boil on a rolling boil for 5 – 10 minutes. If you have a jam thermometer, check the temperature – it must reach 105C or 217F

If you don’t have a thermometer, don’t worry. When the damson mixture has been boiling for 10 minutes get a spoon and place a drop of jam on a cold saucer. Push your finger into the blob. If it wrinkles, it will set.

Turn of the heat and let the jam cool a little before decanting into the jars. Put the lids on.

The jam should last for a year. It’s fantastic on sourdough toast or you can add it to enrich savoury sauces. Or just scoff it straight from the jar!

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