Plum Sauce

If you have a basket (or a tree!) of plums that are ripening rapidly, you need this plum sauce recipe to help preserve them into a sweet and savory condiment that will feed you far beyond the brief weeks of stone fruit season. This recipe is a good introduction to boiling water canning for beginners. If you’d prefer not to use a boiling water canner, you can pack the finished plum sauce into clean bottles or jars and store them in the fridge for quick usage, or in freezer containers for longer storage, frozen. Regardless of how you put it up, you’ll be grateful to have it a taste of summer when you’re at a loss for dinner inspiration!

Plum Sauce Ingredients

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• Plums: Fresh plums of any color, pitted and quartered, provide the sweet, tangy flavor that acts as a base for the sweet and savory sauce.
• Onion and garlic: Two aromatic vegetables, pureed along with the plums, complements the sweetness of the fruit with savory pungency.
• Sugar: Sugar sweetens the sauce, and gives it silky body while also acting as a preservative. You can substitute light brown sugar, which has a more pronounced molasses flavor, but the resulting sauce will have a darker color.
• Cider vinegar: The main preservative in this recipe, cider vinegar gives plum sauce a tangy acidity that makes it a delicious condiment. You can substitute cider vinegar for white vinegar or any other vinegar that  contains at least 5% acetic acid.
• Dry spices: A mixture of dried, ground spices gives this plum sauce a well-rounded flavor profile. Ginger provides spice, dry mustard adds sharpness, cinnamon gives warmth, clove adds depth and crushed red pepper flakes brings heat.

Directions

Step 1: Puree the plums and aromatics and cook

In a blender or food processor, process the plums, onion and garlic in batches until smooth. Transfer to a Dutch oven. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until reduced by a third, 60 to 90 minutes.

Step 2: Ladle the sauce into jars

Carefully ladle the hot mixture into hot sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove the air bubbles and adjust the headspace, if needed, by adding more of the mixture. Wipe the rims of the jars. Center the lids on the jars and screw on the bands until fingertip tight.

Step 3: Process the jars

Place the jars into the canner with simmering water, making sure they’re completely covered with water. Bring the water to a boil and process for 15 minutes. Remove the jars and let them cool.

Test Kitchen Tip: The processing time listed is for altitudes of 1,000 feet or less. Add 1 minute to the processing time for each 1,000 feet of additional altitude.

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Plum Sauce Recipe Variations 

• Keep it chunky: Instead of pureeing the plums, onions and garlic, dice them finely and then cook them as directed. This will yield a more textured plum sauce with visible pieces of fruit.
• Add more heat: Increase the amount of crushed red pepper flakes in the recipe to make an even spicier version of this plum sauce.

How to Store Plum Sauce

Once the jars have cooled completely, verify that the lids of each jar have formed a seal. Remove the canning rings, label and date the jars, and store them away from sunlight in a closed cabinet. It’s important to store the jars without canning rings so you can easily tell if a seal has failed when you use them in the future.

Can you freeze plum sauce?

Absolutely. Once the sauce is completely cool, pour it into freezer-safe containers, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Label, date and freeze them for up to a year.

How long does plum sauce last?

Canned fruit preserves are quite stable. For the brightest color, enjoy it within a year, but as long as the seals on the jars are in good condition, canned plum sauce is good for up to two years.

Plum Sauce Recipe Tips

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Does it matter what type of plums you use to make plum sauce?

The type of plums you use to make this recipe, or at least the color of the flesh and skins, will yield a sauce with a slightly different flavor profile. Red and purple plum varieties make a rosy sauce, while yellow-fleshed varieties yield a more tawny, brown sauce. All will taste delicious with this method!

Can you reduce the sugar or substitute a different kind of sweetener?

If you’re planning to can this recipe, don’t try and reduce the sugar or replace it with another sweetener, as that can disrupt the formulation and render the sauce unsafe for boiling water canning. If you’re not planning to can this recipe, you can adjust or modify the amount of sweetener to your liking!

Can you use dried plums or prunes to make this recipe in place of fresh ones?

Yes, you can substitute prunes to make this recipe, though the color of the sauce will likely be darker than with fresh fruit. Rehydrate prunes first by soaking them in boiling water until they’re completely soft before measuring out the volume of plums called for in the recipe and proceeding with the recipe as written.

How do you use plum sauce?

This homemade plum sauce is a versatile condiment that can be used in a variety of dishes. You can use it as a dipping sauce for shrimp toast or chicken potstickers, or as a sauce for ribs, meatballs or pork tenderloin.