Powidła: Polish plum butter from prune plums alone, no sugar, cooked long
Plum butter the old way: only ripe prune plums, no sugar and no water, cooked down in a wide pot for hours until a spoon stands up in it. The sweetness and the dark colour come from evaporation and the fruit caramelising. On bread, in doughnuts, in bigos.
Your own work in that: 1 h.
- Pitting 30 min
- Cooking down 240 min
- Jars and pasteurising 30 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePit the plums
Wash the plums, halve and remove the stones. Leave the skins: they give colour, pectin and a slight tartness that balances the sweetness. 3 kg of plums makes about 1.2 kg of plum butter, six small jars.
Ingredients: 3000 g prune plums (Hungarian / Italian) · 1 tsp ground cinnamon · 100 g sugar
TipRipeness decides everything. Hard, tart plums give tart plum butter, and sugar won't save it.
Halves, skins onStart cooking
Put the plums in a wide, heavy-based pot, no water and no sugar. Set over medium heat and stir; after a good ten minutes they release juice and begin to simmer. Lower the heat.
No water, no sugar, a wide potCook and stir
Cook uncovered over low heat for 3–4 hours, stirring every 10–15 minutes, more often towards the end. Start checking the thickness after 3 hours. The mass should darken, thicken and lose more than half its volume. Don't leave it for long: scorched plum butter is bitter.
TipIt can be done in stages: an hour today, two tomorrow. Plum butter used to be cooked in large cauldrons for as long as several days, with breaks.
After an hour: collapsed, darkeningTest the thickness
Finished plum butter is almost black and glossy, and a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a trail that doesn't close. A teaspoonful on a cold saucer doesn't spread. Add the cinnamon now, if using.
The spoon's trail stays openFill the jars
Scald the jars and lids with boiling water. Spoon the hot plum butter into the hot jars to the brim, wipe the threads, screw the lids on tightly.
Hot into hot, to the brimPasteurise
Stand the jars in a pot lined with a cloth, add warm water to three-quarters of their height and simmer 20 minutes from the boil. Lift out, stand upside down for 10 minutes, turn upright and leave to cool. The lids should pull down.
Twenty minutes in water, then upside downStore and eat
Keep in a cool, dark place for at least a year, and well cooked-down plum butter even longer. Opened, in the fridge, a month. On buttered bread, in doughnuts, in bigos, with roast duck.
On bread, thickly
Before you start
In the oven
Plums in a roasting tin, 150 °C uncovered, stirred every half hour, 4–5 hours. Less watching and less risk of scorching.
Smooth or with texture?
Traditional plum butter has texture. If you prefer it smooth, blend after the second hour, before it thickens.
Why no sugar?
Prune plums have enough of their own. With sugar you can stop cooking sooner, but the result is closer to jam than to plum butter. If you must, add it in the last hour.