what do I do with unset plum jam?

[nodramaplease]

For the first time in my (admittedly quite short) jam-making career, it hasn't set and I have seven jars of it. I could add it to apple as in crumble, pies, etc -- any other ideas would be most welcome.

Swirl it through yoghurt or porridge.

Reboil it with apple / added pectin.

Use it for sorbet / icecream (eg 600g unset jam plus 400g fruit purée roughly equals 700g fruit purée and 300g sugar.)

I am very good at making unset jam

i'd probably try and reboil it...it must not have got to the setting point states the bleedin' obvious

Did you use a lot of water with the plums?? Cos all that has to boil off.

A couple of apples added in wouldn't hurt, or some lemonjuice and zest.

Heat it up again and add some pectin, it should set then. You can buy liquid pectin from Tesco and probably the other supermarkets too. I had this happen to me once with strawberry jam, it was a very wet season and I was told that too much moisture in the fruit can cause this problem of not setting.

Yes, I think you are all right about the setting point (sighs). I have always done the setting point by the wrinkle test and it's been OK but then (a) these were very small wrinkles and (b) I've only made plum AND APPLE jam before which worked a treat. Does lemon juice by itself work as well as adding apples??

Also I've never used pectin (like a virgin, using pectin the very first time) (sorry, little burst of song there)

Good base for sweet chilli sauce?

We had this problem last year and it did set eventually - we left one jar without re-boiling it and when we came to try it it was quite set, and the jar that we did reboil (with added lemon only) was set like concrete! I'd leave it as it is, swirl it through yoghurt while it's runny, and see if it sets by itself.

Interesting you say that comixminx, a friend on Facebook has also just advised me against reboiling, she says it will turn into glue! I did boil it for nearly an hour which is much longer than I have done with other fruit previously.

Ours was more like quince paste - a very tough rubbery texture!

I have always reboiled, yes it goes a bit further than ideal but then I just rebrand it plum cheese

Plum cheese ... hee hee. Sounds better than plum glue anyway! I had no idea that one could overboil. Think I may have to get that thermometer after all.

The thermometer made all the difference to my cheese jam-making, and also I now have a nice line in fudge too!