Mary's Rich Red Plum Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 Kg Red fleshed plums
- 1 Onion
- 1 bulb Garlic
- 1 Kg Sugar
- 1.5 Litres Malt vinegar
- 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp Ground cloves
- 2 tsp Ground ginger
- 2 tsp Ground black pepper
Instructions
- Slice the plums in half and remove the pips.
- Roughly chop the onion and peel the garlic.
- Combine all of the ingredients together in a large pot or jam pan and bring to the boil.
- Once the mixture has reached a boil, reduce the heat and allow the pulp mixture to reduce. Stirring often to avoid the mixture from sticking.
- Once the sauce has reduced use a stick blender to make a smooth sauce.
- Bottle the sauce while it is hot, and use a funnel to pour it into hot sterile bottles. Please be careful and take care not to burn yourself.
- Use a clean cloth to clean the rims before placing the lids on the bottles.
- Leave the bottle to seal overnight. There is nothing more satisfying than hearing the lids go ‘pop’ signifying that they have sealed.
- Once the bottles have cooled and are sealed wash them in hot soapy water to get rid of any sticky spots.
Notes
- During summer you could freeze your fruit in 3 kg bags, so that you can make sauce throughout the year.
- Freeze apricots in halves without the stones.
- I freeze the plums whole, as it’s easy to remove the pips once they have thawed by simply squishing them out.
- Remember the frozen fruit will retain more moisture and you will need to modify the recipe by halving the vinegar measurement.
- If you don’t have a stick blender you could press the sauce through a sieve to get a smooth texture, or place in a food processor.
- Use a jug to pour the sauce into the funnel. You can use the handle to dip down into the pot and the spout makes it easy to feed the sauce into the funnel.
- If you find you have one bottle that hasn’t sealed, place it in the fridge and have it as your first bottle to use.
- If you have more than one bottle that didn’t seal. Boil it up again and repeat the sterilising process. Use a different lid as it may be damaged (especially if you are reusing bottles that you have collected)