Quick Preserved Plums

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Quick preserved plums are one of those little kitchen tricks that earns its keep. In much the same way that a quick pickle gives vegetables a little extra life, a simple syrup can do the same thing for ripe, soft fruit.

The difference is that instead of vinegar, we’re using a simple syrup – just sugar and water – to gently preserve the fruit while keeping it pleasantly firm.

Quick Sweet Preserves

Boiling syrup gently cooks the fruit as it cools, leaving you with plums that are tender but still hold their shape. They’re lovely spooned over oatmeal, yogurt, pancakes or ice cream, and they make an easy fruit component for desserts, breakfast or even a cheese board.

Does this make them shelf stable? No. These are refrigerator preserves, not a substitute for proper water-bath canning. But they do give fresh plums extra life in the fridge while making them even more useful.

What Is “Simple Syrup”

Simple syrup is made with equal parts sugar and water. If you have one cup of water, then you need one cup of sugar.

This is then boiled hard for 1 to 2 minutes and used however you wish. That one-to-one ratio makes it easy to work in volume.

Simple syrup is commonly used as a canning liquid, but this quick refrigerator method is not the same as a validated canning process. It stores well in the fridge for weeks and can be flavoured a multitude of ways to use as a sweetener in beverages or as a moisture agent before icing layer cakes.

How to Make Quick Preserved Plums

Perfect For Soft Pitted Fruits

And this isn’t just a plum trick. The same method works beautifully with soft, pitted fruits including peaches, apricots and cherries. Think of it as a flexible little preserving technique rather than a single recipe.

For these plums, a splash of vanilla takes things one step further. You can use vanilla extract, vanilla paste or a vanilla pod, depending on what you have on hand. The result is simple, fragrant and ridiculously good.

What You Need

Fresh plums. Sugar. Water. Vanilla extract, vanilla paste or vanilla pod, optional.

The important thing here is using ripe fruit that still has enough structure to hold its shape. Very soft or overripe plums will continue cooking in the hot syrup and can become mushy.

Quick Preserved Plums, Method

Wash the plums well, cut them in half and remove the pits. Pack the prepared plums into a clean, heat-resistant jar, leaving enough room for the syrup to circulate around the fruit.

Make your simple syrup and bring it to a boil. Carefully pour the boiling syrup over the plums, making sure the fruit is well covered.

Leave the jar uncovered and allow the plums to cool completely at room temperature. Once completely cool, cover with a lid and refrigerate.
The plums are ready to use once chilled and can be spooned over everything from morning oatmeal to ice cream.

Keep them refrigerated and treat them as a fresh refrigerator preserve rather than a shelf-stable canned product.

Our backyard plum tree. Much loved by our neighbourhood bear.

Why I Love It

No canning pot, no steamy kitchen, no complicated preserving technique and no need to turn a bowl of plums into jam. Wash, split and pit the plums, tuck them into a heat-resistant jar, pour in your boiling simple syrup, and let them cool before covering and refrigerating.

Lovely colour. Fresh, subtle, sweet results.