Plum jam

Our lovely neighbour has recently given me a bucketload (literally) of plums from his tree. They're really sweet, but there are far too many for us to eat.
I've used about a third of them to make jam. Plum jam evokes lovely childhood memories when my mum would make a huge batch of jam in an old brass preserving pan that belonged to my great grandmother. In keeping with family tradition, I couldn't get the jam to set - although I followed a Mrs Beaton recipe - and so had to add a couple of sachets of fruit pectin. I remember this happening to my mum, who by the way is a fabulous cook! We went strawberry picking, and she made a batch of jam with some of our haul. The first batch wouldn't set. So my (very witty!) dad labelled the jars for her 'Strawberry Sauce' rather than jam. It was great with ice-cream though. She later discovered that adding rhubarb to the mixture makes the jam set due to the high amount of pectin in rhubarb. Maybe I should have tried that!! Here is the recipe that I used - although it didn't entirely work for me! It did set as desired when the pectin was added, and the resulting jam is delicious.

Mrs Beaton's Plum Jam

1 lb plums
3/4 lb sugar

• cut fruit in half and remove stones.
• Cover fruit with sugar in a large preserving pan, and leave overnight.
• Bring fruit/sugar mixture to boil. Simmer for half an hour.
• Then increase heat and boil for 15 minutes.
• Transfer hot jam to sterilised jars.