Make the most of the greengage season by making a batch of spiced greengage jam. Dipping into a jar of this sweetly spiced conserve will be a wonderful treat as the cooler days of autumn set it.
If you enjoy jam with a little tartness about it, try my damson jam too.
Jump to:
I unexpectedly found myself making this spiced greengage jam recently after a lovely friend delivered a large stash of greengages that she had harvested from her garden. I’ve rarely come across this fruit in the supermarket or even in local farmshops, so I was really quite delighted with my gift.
My friend warned me that they had started falling early this year for some reason, and they were still quite tart. One bite confirmed my suspicions – they would make some fabulous greengage jam.
Adding a gentle buzz of sweet spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, star anise, cardamom and some sweet, floral vanilla seemed like a great way to take the base recipe. So I went with the meanderings of my mind and created this spiced greengage jam.
What are Greengages?
Greengages are sweet dessert plums that are green in colour.
They first appeared in Britain in 1724, and although not as common as other plum varieties, they are without a doubt regarded as one of our national culinary treasures.
They typically start to ripen around mid-August, but picking just ahead of this time is a good move if you intend to make jam with your greengage harvest. Under-ripe greengages are tart in flavour, just like gooseberries, and they contain higher levels of pectin, which is essential for helping achieve a good jam set.
Ingredients notes
The ingredients for this greengage jam recipe are simple:
Greengages – use slightly under-ripe fruit if possible, as this contains more natural pectin than ripe fruit
Sugar – regular granulated white sugar works a treat here – there’s no need for jam or preserving sugar
Spices – a mix of spices you are likely to have in your pantry if you enjoy cooking and baking
Butter – just a small knob of butter stirred in can help disperse any scum that may arise during cooking
You will notice that I do not list either pectin, specialist jam making sugars or lemon juice in this recipe. That’s because slightly under-ripe greengages have sufficient pectin in them naturally to achieve a good set when making jam.
During my testing for this recipe, I made a batch using a little lemon juice (evident in the images) to see if including a small amount would help retain the vibrant green of the raw fruit. As it made no difference whatsoever, I have not included it in the final recipe for this spiced greengage jam.
Step by step instructions
Jam making is a relatively simple process. It’s really a series of steps and if you follow them to the letter, very little can go wrong.
My top tip for you is to ensure you cook the jam to setting point, which is 105C/ 221F. Under-cooked jam will be too runny and overcooked jam can be incredibly firm.
- Halve the greengages, remove the stones and chop roughly – I chopped each half into 4 or 6 pieces, but you can leave chunkier if you would like larger pieces in your jam
- Put the fruit into a large saucepan along with the sugar and water. Remember that jam will bubble and boil as it cooks, so it is better to choose a pan where the contents leave plenty of room for this to occur without the risk of it boiling over
- Press down firmly on the cardamom pods using the back of a blunt knife until they crack open. Scoop the pods and seeds into the pan
- Slit the vanilla pod lengthways with a sharp knife. Scrape the seeds into the saucepan then drop in the pod
- Add the cinnamon, star anise, ginger and nutmeg to the pan
- Stir everything together, then cook over a gentle heat for around 20 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the fruit is soft
- Take off the heat and leave the jam to infuse for 30 minutes
- Remove all of the spices – count them out to ensure none are left behind
- Optional step: use a stick blender to perform 3 x 1 second pulses of the jam. This breaks some of the fruit pieces down whilst still leaving plenty of fruity chunks behind
- Prepare 2 sterilised jam jars: wash in soapy water, rinse and then put into an oven heated to 140C/ 284F for 15 minutes
- While the jars are sterilising, cook the jam over a medium-high heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until it reaches 105C/ 221F on a digital food thermometer (I used my Thermapen)
- Once this temperature has been reached turn off the heat, stir the butter through the jam and leave to cool for 10 minutes
- Stir before decanting into the prepared jars. Cover each jar with a circle of wax paper and secure the lid tightly. Invert the jars then leave to cool completely before labelling
Frequently asked questions
If you are intending on storing the jam for any length of time then it is imperative to use sterilised jars to reduce the risk of mold forming over time.
If, however, you know that the entire batch of this greengage jam is destined to be used within 2-3 weeks, it is fine to store in any sealable container, provided you then store it in the fridge. I highly recommend letting the jam come to room temperature before serving to allow the full flavour to shine.
The spices can by all means be left out, turning this into a straight greengage jam recipe.
In this case, there is no need to take the cooked fruit off the heat to infuse for 30 minutes. Once the fruit has softened in the pan, go straight to the stage of raising the cooking temperature and boiling to setting point.
Don’t forget to prepare the sterilised jars at a suitable point though. Getting this stage done at the start of the jam making process is no bad thing.
The ingredients listed produce 2 jars of approximately 340g each, so it is a small batch recipe.
However, you can easily scale up the base recipe to make 4, 6 or more jars of jam. Just increase all ingredients by the same proportions (double, triple etc) each time.
I have included a small knob of butter in this recipe for greengage jam. However, it can easily be left out to suit a vegan diet.
Serving suggestions
Hands down, my favourite way to eat this spiced greengage jam is on toast.
It can, however, be used to top all manor of goodies such as:
- Breakfast goods such as English muffins, pikelets or croissants
- Scones – preferably with clotted cream
- Vanilla sponge cake
- Meringue nests
Alternatively, use it to fill coconut tart, inside of cornflake slices or on a steamed jam sponge pudding.
More jam & curd recipes
Have you tried this recipe for greengage jam? I hope that you enjoyed it. Please leave a review to let me know.
Stay in touch: sign up to receive LittleSugarSnaps newsletters to hear when new recipes are published. Or follow me on social media:
📖 Recipe
Spiced Greengage Jam
Ingredients
- 500 g/ 17 ½ oz Greengages
- 450 g/ 16 oz Granulated sugar
- 125 ml/ ½ cup Water
- 1 Cinnamon stick 10cm
- 1 Star anise
- ¼ teaspoon Ground nutmeg
- 5 g Ginger Approx 3 x 1mm thick slices
- 2 Green cardamom pods
- 1 Vanilla pod
Instructions
- Halve the greengages, remove the stones and chop roughly – I chopped each half into 4 or 6 pieces, but you can leave chunkier if you would like larger pieces in your jam
- Put the fruit into a large saucepan along with the sugar and water. Remember that jam will bubble and boil as it cooks, so it is better to choose a pan where the contents leave plenty of room for this to occur without the risk of it boiling over
- Press down firmly on the cardamom pods using the back of a blunt knife until they crack open. Scoop the pods and seeds into the pan
- Slit the vanilla pod lengthways with a sgharpknife. Scrape the seeds into the saucepan then drop in the pod
- Add the cinnamon, star anise, ginger and nutmeg to the pan
- Stir everything together, then cook over a gentle heat for around 20 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the fruit is soft
- Take off the heat and leave the jam to infuse for 30 minutes
- Remove all of the spices – count them out to ensure none are left behind
- Optional step: use a stick blender to perform 3 x 1second pulses of the jam. This breaks some of the fruit pieces down and helps create lovely greengage flavour in each spoonful, whilst still leaving plenty of fruity chunks behind
- Prepare 2 sterilised jam jars: wash in soapy water, rinse and then put into an oven heated to 140C/ 284F for 15 minutes
- While the jars are sterilising, cook the jam over a medium-high heat, stirrringfrequently to avoid burning, until it reaches 105C/ 221F on a digital food thermometer
- Once this temperture has been reached turn off the heat, stir the butter through the jam and leave to cool for 10 minutes
- Stir before decanting into the prepared jars. Cover each jar with a circle of wax paper and secure the lid tightly. Invert the jars then leave to cool completely before labelling
Karla
Hi Jane. I’m going to be making your recipe today. I can’t wait. It sounds so delicious. I did want to point out an error I found though. Just an FYI, the F temperature in your “top tip” has a typo. 105 C should be 221 F like you mentioned in your instructions farther down, not 112 F. Anyway, just thought you would like to know. Thanks in advance for a great recipe.
Jane Coupland
Hey Karla, oh thanks for mentioning that – corrected immediately. I hope you enjoy the recipe and jam. Thanks again.
Mark
Our green gage trees gave us way too many plums this year, which led us to try your spiced jam recipe. It’s a real winner! I made a 1/2 batch to test the recipe, which we didn’t try to preserve at all.
We’ll revisit our plethora of plums in the next couple days and turn it into a surfeit of subtly spiced jam, which we’ll certainly preserve.
Thank you for this delightful recipe!
Jane Coupland
Mark, lucky you – my greengage supply was a one off from a friend who’s tree died the following year. I look out for them in farm shops but rarely see them. Thankyou for your lovely comment – I’m delighted that you enjoy the jam.
Lisa
How long will this save for once made.
Thinking of large batches of the spiced version
Jane Coupland
Hi Lisa, if you follow the instructions to seal in sterilised jars it will keep for a couple of years. If you don’t want to do that then I suggest storing in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
Zoe
Wow this is something special – i cannot believe how beautiful this spiced jam is….delicious! I may enter this for my village show next year, its a showstopper. My only complaint is that i ended up with half the amount of jam that the recipe said despite following instructions exactly.
Jane Coupland
Hi Zoe. Fantastic – sop pleased you like it so much and good luck in the competition (let me know how you get on). I’m not sure why you only got one jar from the recipe… as you can see from the images it yielded 2 jars for me.
Tracy
This jam is delicious! I’ve had rave reviews from everyone who has tried it. Thank you! I will definitely be making this again.
Tracy
I tried this recipe for the first time last night. I used ground ginger instead of fresh, (1/4 teaspoon). It worked so well and is absolutely delicious! I will definitely be making it again – I’m lucky enough to have a greengage tree in my garden. Thank you for sharing.
Jane Saunders
Ah, thanks so much for the feedback and lucky you having greengages in good supply.
sarah Lewkowicz
This is a great post ..wish I could find greengage plums here. I tried to grow them and no luck with the little tree. I will try this recipe with purple plums! I love the image with the jar at the end. Beautiful
Jane Saunders
Ah Sarah, thankyou. Growing your own is dedication – I hope you manage to find some. I definitely dropped lucky with a friend giving me a large pile – there were none in the supermarket this week.
Jessica
I hadn’t heard of greengages before, but I love trying new ingredients. I found through a local farmer and made this jam. It is so good! We’ve used on PB&J sandwiches and for morning toast.
Jane Saunders
Ah – not thought of pairing it with PB but it sounds great. Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback.
wilhelmina
Oh wow! This jam is incredible! It will make wonderful gifts for the holidays.
Jane Saunders
Great idea. I’ve already gifted a jar to the friend who supplied the greengages in the images.