Cottage Smallholder Plum Chutney or Damson Chutney
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chutney and Pickles, Jam Jelly and Preserves | 222 comments
a wicker basket full of wild plums
This chutney recipe works well with plums, wild plums or damsons. It does not need months to mature and keeps well
I had some spare time today so finally retrieved the stock pot from Danny, swooshed it out with bicarbonate of soda to get rid of the taint of clove chutney (see Tricks and Tips below) and found the plum chutney recipe from Anne Mary’s old cook book. This was going to be the base of our own Cottage Smallholder Chutney.
I had collected three pounds of windfall wild plums yesterday and simmered them last night for 20 minutes in 75 ml of white wine vinegar. This is Delia’s canny trick to avoid stoning fresh plums for chutney (use some of the vinegar that you are going to use for your brew). This morning, grabbing a handful at a time, it was easy to find the stones and remove them (our wild plum stones are tiny, barely a centimetre long).
At breakfast we studied Anne Mary’s recipe and decided how we would change it to create a plum chutney that we would be proud of. Danny had to go to London so pinpointed his essential ingredients for our chutney – balsamic vinegar and juniper berries. As I was the one who ruined the last “Let’s make our own” batch with too many cloves, I decided that our chutney was definitely going to work this time.
There was a clove shaped crisis of confidence. And consequently the alterations that I made today were incrementally smalll. This meant hours of tasting, comparisons and retasting, until I felt quite queasy from ingesting so much chutney. (At least a jar without lunch). It has now simmered (tiny bubbles barely breaking the surface) for five hours. When you draw a wooden spoon through the chutney, it is thick enough to see where you have been. It is finally done, and approved for release. We have made a great plum chutney, extra fruity and piquant.
Danny returned exhausted from London and sniffed the aroma as he walked into the kitchen. There was a long silence as he grabbed a spoon and rushed to the stock pot for a taste. His response was positive. Our recipe is below..
Our latest Plum and Tamarind Chutney recipe is here.
Tricks and Tips:
- How do I get rid of tainted smells in pots?
If your cooking pot or container is tainted with the smell of the last resident (curry, tomato sauce etc). Sprinkle with a good tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into it and add a good splosh of hot water. Rub the solution over all surfaces and leave for two minutes. Rinse well in cold water.
- How do I sterilise jars and lids?
The sterilising method that we use is simple. Just before making the jam, I quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160c/140c for fan assisted. When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The jars will stay warm for quite a while. I only use plastic lined lids for preserves as the all-metal lids can go rusty. I boil these for five minutes in water to sterilise them. If I use Le Parfait jars, I do the same with the rubber rings.
| Cottage Smallholder Plum Chutney or Damson Chutney |
- 3lbs/1350g wild plums/damsons/eating plums
- 1lb/450g of apples (cored but not skinned). Chopped fine. Cooking apples are best but eating apples would do at a pinch.
- 1 lb/450g onions chopped fine
- 10.5 ozs/300g dried apricots (chopped at least into eight)
- 7 ozs/200g dried raisins (chopped into four)
- Half lb-1lb/225g-450g of soft brown sugar, depending on how sweet your wild plums/damsons/eating plums are. We’d usehalf a lb of sugar for eating plums but used 1lb for this batch as we were using wild plums (these are very tart like damsons).
- 2 large cloves of garlic chopped fine
- Half tsp of cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of allspice powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1and a half pints/750 ml of white wine vinegar
- 1 small hot chilli
- 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
- 5 juniper berries
- 10 black peppercorns
- Stone the plums and if big enough cut into slices.
- Chop the apples, onions, raisins and apricots.
- Place all ingredients in a large heavy bottomed saucepan and bring slowly to a gentle boil. Turn the heat down immediately and simmer very gently (tiny bubbles just breaking the surface on the lowest heat) for at least five hours until the mixture has broken down and thickens.
- Stir from time to time and more towards the end. If your simmering point is higher than ours, your chutney will be ready sooner. Take a peek every half hour or so. The chutney will thicken as it cools.
- When ready pour into sterilised jars and cover with plastic lined metal lids (how do I sterilise jars and lids? See Tips and Tricks above).
Leave a reply
Hello David
You could preserve Delia’s plums in Le Parfait jars submerged in a water bath. We use this method for our Belgian pears and they are great for at least two years.
This yearI’m using my mum’s method for bottling fruit in a slow oven too!
I’ve just discovered Mum’s recipe for bottling fruit so maybe we’ll simply do that.
Good morning all,
I’m after some advice. As well as this excellent chutney recipe we make plums in red wine. The recipe is from Delia, Book 3 of her 3 book set. We have been freezing this to presrve it, but we wondered if, since it contains sugar and wine, whether this could be bottled in Kilner jars, for example, and not frozen. Anyone any thoughts? Incidentally, we can recommend the recipe, fresh or frozen.
Hi Lesley
Did you leave any plum stones when you were making the jam, this can make a big difference. Also a dash of fresh lemon juice can help.
Good idea to add the apples. Apple and Plum sounds delish.
Hi Nikki
We have a slow cooker so might try making some chutney in mine.
Thanks for your quick reply been shopping to get ingredients today, let you know how I get on!
My plum jam became a tasty, thick, sticky plum and apple sauce. Should be great with cold meats. ( I decided to add a few windfall apples and the “jam” was not setting despite boiling. pleased with the end result though!
Hello Amanda
Thanks for all those tips! Love the idea of chilli plum jam.
Hi Dawn
They sound like wild cherry plums to me. Mirabelles are very sharp tasting.
Hi Lesley
I hope that it turned out well.
Hi Lix
Thanks for that 🙂
Hi Nikki
No keep the vinegar (just use a few sploshes of the vinegar in the ingtrdients)and add it to the mix.
I don’t see why you couldn’t make this chutney in the slow cooker. If you do I’d love to hear how it turns out.
Hi I like many many others have decided to have a go at the chutney now need to get all my ingredients, sorty to ask but after softening plums in vinegar to get stones out do you discard that vinegar? Also could I make this recipe in my large slow cooker on a low setting? Would be great if I could as busy mum! Thanks very much regards Nikki
Hi Dawn, sounds like these are cherry plums. I’ve found them for the first time this year in the hedgerows. Internet searching discovered what these are and they can range from yellow to dark red. The ones I found were yellow like the colour of apricots. You can use them just like any other plum although I found that plum jam using a jam cloth and plum chutney were great sucesses!
Hi
I found those yellow plums too whilst out picking the last of the blackberries. off to make the jam now……..