4lbs (1.8kg) damsons
Quarter pint (145ml) of water
4lbs (1.8kg) sugar
Juice of one lemon (not in this recipe, I added this in myself)
- Wash and wipe the damsons. Pick over to remove stalks
- Put into a pan with the water (I actually didn’t put the water in at this stage as I wanted to see how much juice the damsons generated first) and simmer gently until the fruit is soft, occasionally pressing the damsons against the sides of the pan to break open and release the stones
- Remove the stones (I would suggest you let the damsons cool down first)
- It now says on the recipe to test for pectin. I admit missing this stage out and added the juice of one lemon when I added the sugar
- Add the sugar, stirring until dissolved
- Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for about 10 minutes (I timed it and it was 10 minutes) until the jam sets when tested
- Remove the remainder of the stones as they rise to the surface (this was easy as I only had a few)
- Remove the scum
- Pot and seal while still hot
Makes around 6lbs (2.7kg) of jam
The jam is lovely! I probably didn’t need to add the lemon juice so will leave out of the next batch I cook.
I have made some more jam this year and cooked the damsons for around 30 minutes so they were nice and soft and had broken down well. The damsons were slightly under ripe and this has made a much lighter jam that tastes less sweet.
I have also made damson jelly this year following the cottage smallholder recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com
Great if you have a lot of damsons to get rid of and can’t face de-stoning them!