Peach-Nectarine-Plum Jam? Introducing Stone Fruit Jam at SimplyCanning

Stone Fruit Jam

With Sharon Peterson

Stone Fruit Jam…. Otherwise known as Peach Nectarine Plum Jam.

I was gifted a couple bags of fruit the other day. About 6 peaches, 6 nectarines and a bag of plums. We already had apples, bananas, pineapples, tomatoes and a very full fridge. The fruit was getting overripe so I knew I had to use it up quick. Jam is always a good bet!

I didn’t really have enough of any of them to make a full batch of jam so I combined what I had and wah lah… stone fruit jam.

After my family ate what they wanted…. I ended up using about 4 peaches, 4 nectarines and 7 plums. Enough for 7 cups of fruit. After looking at some of my other jam recipes I decided on 3 cups sugar. To keep the color nice I added 3 T lemon juice.

Since this was my own creation this time I didn’t know if it would have enough pectin to jel up nice but I figured if it didn’t work I’d just call it…. Stone fruit syrup! Syrup is also always a good bet!

No fear, it turned out great. Jam it is. 🙂

Prepare

Gather your canning supplies

water bath canner
canning jars
canning lids and rings
jar lifter and canning funnel
large pot or blancher
bowls
large spoons
sharp knife
towels and dish cloths

Ingredients

7 cups chopped Peaches, Plums and Nectarines.
3 cups sugar
3 T lemon juice.

Start by preparing jars,and get water in your canner heating.
(see Water Bath Canning for full directions)

Peaches and Nectarines – Peel, remove from the stone and chop coarsely. I just peeled with a knife since there were not that many fruits and they were very ripe and easy to peel. You could blanch and remove the skins that way. See my canning peaches page for directions on how to peel your peaches.

Fruit slices and chopped pulp in a large glass measuring bowl on the countertop.

Plums – I ended up using a food processor to chop up the plums. I was not convinced it would break up and mash as easily as the peaches and nectarines. So I figured I’d chop them up first. When you do this, be sure you only chop them. Don’t liquefy. You just want it chopped finely.

Combine all in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Stir often.

Use a potato masher if needed to mash up the fruit.

A large pot of jam boiling with little bubbles bursting through the surface of the mixture.

Tip: If the jam is ‘almost ready, don’t leave it for ‘just a minute’. It WILL burn. Ask me how I know.

Boil for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly. As it gets thicker test the temperature. Try to get to at least 200 degrees. This is a good gelling point.

When the jam is done fill jars leaving about ¼ inch headspace. Add canning lids and rings. Pink Tattlers are the bomb! (the bomb – my sons expression of delight)

The Pink lids were a limited edition and no longer produced. But white tattler lids can still be purchased. Check your local Ace hardware and other places where they sell canning supplies. Amazon is always a good bet too. 🙂 Here is my review of tattler lids.

Placing reusable lids on top of the jars of stonefruit jam.

Confession time: If the jam is slightly scorched, make some toast top with jam and taste it. If it doesn’t TASTE scorched, go ahead fill your jars and proceed as usual. Don’t scrape the bottom.

Mark the jars in such a way that you DON’T give them away as gifts. Just in case there are little bits of scorched but not really tasting scorched jam floating around in there. Really just do it…. I did . Shhhhhhhh.