Riffing on the plum theme

As part of the ongoing campaign to reduce the amount of plums we have lurking around the building, we've been experimenting a bit.  This is guilt-free cookery at its best.  Anything that works is a bonus, anything that doesn't is no great loss as we've at least tried to use the fruit.

On the success side, we can chalk up the following:-

Jam - well, that's a given.

Compote - basically nearly jam but with as little sugar as you can get away with.  Superb spooned over yoghurt for breakfast.

Lightly cooked and frozen for later use.  Stoned.  Just do it.  The unstoned bag of plums we found was ... not a good experience.  You still have to take the blasted things out and it is slightly easier with the fruit intact.

Leather - my personal jury is still out on this one.  It uses a huge amount of plums, which is good.  The end product is pretty much what you'd think.  A strip of pliable dried plum which stores well.  The downside is we're not sure what to use it for now we've got it.

Spiced plum brandy/vodka/gin/whatever booze you have most of -  resoundingly successful and lethal.  It joins the ranks of other concoctions which taste utterly innocent and then turn around 10 minutes later and kick your brains out through your nose.

Plum wine - again, uses many, many plums.  The downside is that it's a year until you find out if it has worked or not.

On the failed side:-

Syrup - don't bother.  3 kilos of plums produced a very, very small amount of prune juice (what did I expect? - still somehow disappointed).  Certainly not worth cluttering up the kitchen with dripping bags for two days even if it did smell quite nice.

Candied plums - Unless the beasties are under-ripe when you start, there is no point.  Candying is simple enough, but it's brutal on the fruit.  Plums just can't take it.  They are feeble nancies at heart.

Drying - well, it works, but you get prunes.  Who uses prunes?

Damson Massacre

The wind stripped both plum trees last night and quite a few damsons bit the dust as well.  I'm not sure whether to be happy about this or not. 

Having spent a lot of last weekend with my husband finding innovative ways of using plums I'm not that sorry to have had the plum issue taken out of our hands.  The damsons I do feel a little guilty about.  They make amazing jam.  It tastes like warmly spiced plum all by itself and has an old-fashioned feel to it.  Damson jam means autumn and the start of my favourite time of year.

They're a horror to prepare mind you.  There is no way to de-stone the blighters.  They have to be cooked.  The stones rise to the surface and can be skimmed off.  So all the books say, and despite my misgivings, the books are right.  They do rise and you can skim them off.  It's time-consuming and my glasses steam up watching hawk-like for the rising of the stones and wielding a slotted spoon.