Plum jam rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 11 recipes to cook with it.

What is plum jam?

Plum jam is whole plums cooked down with sugar until thick and spreadable. The fruit itself is what makes it interesting: plum skins are tart and tannic while the flesh is honey-sweet.

So a good plum jam lands somewhere between sweet and sour, with a deep purple color that comes straight from the skins.

That tartness is the whole point. It keeps the jam from cloying and makes plum one of the few preserves that works as easily on a pork chop as on a piece of toast.

Most plum jam is left a little chunky, with soft pieces of fruit suspended in the set. Plums are also naturally high in pectin, especially in the skins, so the jam often sets firmly with little or no added pectin.

Cooking With Plum Jam

The everyday job is breakfast. Spread it on toast, swirl it into yogurt or oatmeal, or layer it into pastries and thumbprint cookies, where its tartness keeps the cookie from tasting like pure sugar.

It bakes well too. Plum Jam Muffins fold it straight into the batter for pockets of fruit, and a spoonful makes a quick filling for a Classic Country Plum Tart when fresh plums are out of season.

Where plum jam really earns its keep is with meat. Thinned with a little vinegar or soy and brushed on as a glaze, it caramelizes on pork and duck into a sticky, savory-sweet crust.

Plum Good Chicken, Spiced Lamb Cutlets, and Moo Shu-Style Grilled Chicken all use it this way.

It also melts into pan sauces. Stir a spoonful into the drippings after searing chicken or pork, as in Chicken with Fruit & Almonds, and it adds body and a fruity tang in one move.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Plum jam has a natural affinity for warm spices and rich meats. Cinnamon and star anise both deepen it, while sharp cheeses and roast pork play off its tartness.

The most common mistake on the savory side is using it straight from the jar as a glaze. On its own it is too sweet and too thick, so it scorches before the meat is done.

Loosen it with vinegar or a little stock, and apply it only in the last few minutes of cooking.

The other slip is over-reducing a plum sauce. Because the jam is already concentrated, a sauce can turn gummy and oversweet if you cook it too long. Add it near the end and simmer just enough to bring it together.

Substitutes

For breakfast uses, any dark stone-fruit preserve stands in well. Damson or a tart cherry jam brings a similar sweet-sour balance, though damson is the closest match to plum's skin-driven tartness.

For glazes and savory sauces, a smooth fruit preserve like apricot or fig works, but it is sweeter, so add a splash of vinegar to mimic plum's edge. Hoisin or a Chinese plum sauce is the better swap when you want that savory, spiced character outright.

In a pinch, fresh plums simmered with sugar for ten minutes give you a quick compote that covers most of what the jam does, just looser and less set.

Buying and Storing

Plum jam is a supermarket staple, shelved with the other preserves. Read the label: some jars are nearly all sugar, while better ones list plums first and taste more of fruit than syrup. A jar with visible bits of skin usually has more of that signature tartness.

An unopened jar keeps in the pantry for a year or more, since the high sugar content preserves it. Heat and light dull the flavor over time, so a cool, dark cupboard is best.

Once opened, refrigerate it and use it within about a month. Always dip with a clean spoon, because crumbs and butter left in the jar invite mold and shorten its life considerably.

Quick facts

In Chinese

梅果酱

British (UK) term

Plum jam

en français

confiture de prunes

en español

mermelada de ciruela

Recipes using plum jam

There are 11 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 11 recipes