It’s really easy to make your own Loquat Jam and there are many Loquat Jam recipes out there, but this one has something extra; the vanilla bean.
Jams are easy to make, I know people who anxiously wait every year for strawberry season so they can buy a flat of strawberries, then rush home to make jam. But wouldn’t it be nice to make a delicious jam from fruit that you can’t buy in most stores?
What are Japanese Plums?
Japanese Plums (commonly known as Loquats here in Australia) are a staple in many backyards. They’re also known as Japanese Medlars, Chinese Plums and knowns as pipa in China. A delicious fruit that many people don’t know what to do with. I also love making Loquat Apple Crumble. Loquats taste like a cross between several fruits, like peach, apricot, and apple. When you get a really ripe loquat, my son says it tastes sweet like honey.
Japanese plums or loquats are closely related to the apple family, and have a slightly poisonous seed, like an apricot kernel. So don’t eat the seeds, although you would need to eat a large amount to get sick. Now I don’t like to fuss with a lot of things when cooking, such as peeling tiny fruits. Some people like to blanch them then peel them, but if they are ripe, they will peel easily. I don’t bother with all that fuss. This loquat jam recipe is so easy. As the fruit cooks, it breaks down and softens the skin, then I use an immersion blender to blend it to a consistency I’m happy with.
Loquats are high in fibre and high in pectin naturally, so you don’t need to add anything to your jam that shouldn’t belong. Plus it has the added bonus of being the only fruit ripening during winter/spring, when no other local fruit is available.
A Chinese Plum Jam recipe that’s easy, fresh and tasty, perfect for tomorrow’s breakfast. Bon Appetit! Приятного аппетита!
Loquat Jam | Japanese Plum Jam
Ingredients
- 8 cups seeded quartered loquats
- 6 cups sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- juice of a large lemon
Instructions
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Wash and de-seed loquats. Cut them into quarters. Add lemon juice to prevent them from browning (but also necessary for the jam to thicken).
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Put the loquats, sugar and lemon in a large pot over high heat, stirring until the sugar melts.
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Cut the vanilla bean in half and add to the loquat mixture.
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Bring to a boil while stirring constantly, then reduce to a low simmer.
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Stir frequently to prevent from burning. The fruit will start to break down. You will need to cook this for approx 1 hour.
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At the 30 minute mark, remove the vanilla beans from the jam. Take a stick blender or immersion blender and blend the loquats. I like to leave some texture and lumps in my jam. Add the vanilla beans again and continue to cook for the hour time frame, until the jam is thick. I find that after blending, the jam can burn quicker, so remember to stir.
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Ladle into jars and seal with a lid. Allow to cool and set. Keep refrigerated unless you have properly canned and sealed the jam. Enjoy.
©PetersFoodAdventures.com
I started this website as a way to capture the recipes that I grew up with, and pass them onto the next generation. Being world travellers, there are foods from all over the world, but my passion is primarily the Slavic and Russian foods I grew up with.
your recipe and it turned out delicious. For our last batch we added 1 cup of Jim Beam bourbon and its a winner. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing your tip! 👍🏻👍🏻
We have a loquat tree in the backyard of the house we’ve been living in for 12 years! I just discovered that the loquats were edible!!!
Question – do you peel the loquats? I’ve been looking at different recipes – some peel and some don’t mention that step.
I’m excited to see how this turns out!!
Hi Suzanne, it’s exciting to discover a new fruit! 👍🏻 Some people blanch and peel the loquats, I don’t. Using a stick blender it all gets chopped up after it breaks down when cooking. It’s up to you, I just never had to patience to peel them! Good luck!
Made this today. I had about 16 – 18 Cups cleaned loquats, from the comments I gathered it might be too sweet for my taste. A neighbor brought over a loaf of fresh baked bread and I tried it out, Really good, thanks for the recipe. I have a fig tree which i put up figs most every summer, kinda the same recipe, again really good.
Forgot to say i used half the amount of sugar
So glad to hear! Thanks for the feedback. Love it with fresh baked bread! ❤️
I would like to try to use my Japanese Plums with some Sure-Jell. What directions are the closest? Would it be more like peach? Any ideas/advice would be appreciated.
Has anyone ever tried to do this by blanching and then using a food mill to get rid of the pit and the skins?
Darlene
Sorry I haven’t done either, but I’m sure it would be similar to peach. Maybe others have advice 😊
Well, it’s not real amaretto – made from almonds – but it tastes very similar. I call it loquavit (meant to be witty but probably pretentious). The original recipe calls it Italian Loquat Seed Liqueur, and you can find it at
http://www.guntheranderson.com/liqueurs/loquatse.htm
I use grain alcohol, diluted to about 33% proof (UK), and I use 1 unit of seeds by volume and 1 unit of (diluted) alcohol by volume.
For each 750cc of alcohol, I use the rind of a small lemon and 1 vanilla pod.
At the end of the month, I discard the stones, lemon rind and vanilla, measure the liquid I have, and, for each unit of liquid by volume, I make a sugar solution with 2/3 of a unit of sugar by weight and 1/3 of a unit of water by volume. In other words, if I have 750cc of liquid, I use 500gm of sugar and 250cc of water.
While it does improve with age, my liqueur is certainly drinkable as soon as it is made.
Wow, thanks for sharing!!
okay this is 2019 and I live in Perth. I grew up with loquats, and have a tree now in fruit… I have never made jam, but have got it in my slow crockpot so will see how it goes. I am diabetic so did not put as much sugar, but I have cut up some zest of the lemon, which I grow, and put that in it. later on will use blender and see how it goes.. thanks for that. Have managed to make c ranberry, and also orange jam, and orange and ginger, and will make some melon and ginger tomorrow.. thanks for the help….
That sounds great! Hope you enjoy it 😊
Thanks so much for this elegantly simple and simply delicious recipe. Wonderful consistency, and using the blender is such an effective way to achieve exactly the consistency I like.
Like others, I found it a little sugary for my taste, so, for my second experimental mini-batch, I reduced the sugar slightly and added the lemon zest as well as the juice. Perfection!
Incidentally, I have a loquat tree in the garden, and so my first harvest usually means seeding and stalking several kilo at once (to freeze for ice cream and shakes (and, from now, to make jam). After a first year when the ‘cleaning’ took hours, I read of a technique that saves a lot of time. If the top of the fruit has the stalk still in, pull that out. Then use your thumb to push the bottom (the remains of the blossom) up through the fruit and out at the top. Magically, out come the stones, the ‘sac’ around the stones, and the remains of the blossom. You can either discard all of that, or save the stones to make a delicious liqueur that is very reminiscent of amaretto.
Thanks for the great tips!!! 👍🏻
okay how do you make amaretto….. the drink? betty
Hi Betty, sorry but I haven’t made Amaretto before.
I have a pressure cooker / canner. I would like to properly can them so that I don’t have to store in the refrigerator. How long should I can these at 15 lbs pressure?
Hi Laurel, I’m sorry, I don’t know because I haven’t used a pressure cooker canner before. When you find out, please let me know so we can share it with other readers 😊
Very tasty but too sweet to my liking, I’ll use less sugar next time. Note that there is a small woody end where the flower was that I cut off first and discard along with the seeds. Also, when I removed the seeds, there is a sack surrounding them that I scrape out with my fingernail. Otherwise, Thank you for the recipe as I love loquats and can’t bear seeing so much good fruit die and rot each year. Now I use so many more.
Great recipe! Thank you.
Thanks for the feedback, hope you enjoy it!
I have two very large Japanese Plum trees in my yard and never knew what to do with all the fruit. Yesterday I saw this recipe and made the jam. I peeled all those tiny little fruits, took all day but I grow organic so the skins are pretty ugly. Anyway the results were amazing! 12 jelly jars full plus two bowls for immediate use. My neighbors will all get some. I still have loads of fruit on the trees but at least it hasn’t all gone to waste.
Hey Jodi! That sounds amazing, and so generous of you to your neighbors too!! 👍🏻 Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the recipe, worked perfectly! I left out the vanilla bean, as it’s expensive, and it still tastes great! I love homemade jam! ????
I followed this recipe exactly, EXACTLY and once it was cooled in the fridge it literally turned into a solid brick of sugar, you can’t even chisel is out of the jar its so hard, I don’t know what went wrong, the only thing I can think to do know to try an salvage the jelly is to heat it up in the microwave just until I can pour it back in the pot and melt it down completely and add a lot of water and then pour it back into the jars. Any ideas?
Hi Ryan, that’s awful that the jam has turned into a brick of sugar! I have had that happen to me once before years ago when a jam crystalized after making it. It’s very frustrating after all the work that goes into making jam. It apparently can happen randomly sometimes when making jam and has to do with natural sugars in the fruit (and added sugars) and the temperature. Here is a link to a forum where I looked for advice, I ended up reheating the jam and adding more lemon juice and I also added a tablespoon of honey. https://www.chowhound.com/post/crystallized-jam-unsavable-846583
Ok, I’ll try that, thank you for the help. By the way…the jam tasted great until it fossilized!
Great Recipe!
I’ll keep you posted on the results.
We call these Japanese Plums. The vanilla bean was a great addition, subtle, but definitely there. The flavours went great together. Thanks for a great recipe!
Thanks for checking out the recipe! My loquats are blooming and I can’t wait for them to be in season again. We just finished up the last of the jam I made last year! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
wow very nice jam! lovely Peter
Thanks Lynn! 🙂
yumm
It kinda reminds me of an apricot jam, but has a slight bitterness/tartness of a marmalade… hard to explain, but you are right, oh so good!!!!
oh that sounds lovely!
Sounds delicious, Peter! We just picked wild blackberries last month and made several posts of jam in Ireland. I know you can buy blackberry jam in the shops but I agree with you about it being wonderful to make it yourself. My youngest daughter and I called in two friends and we made it an afternoon occasion…such fun! Wish we could get Japanese Plums in our part of the world!
Sounds delicious! I love fresh blackberries!!!! They cost $60 a kilo here, I wish I had some fresh ones!! Lol
My boys also did the picking and helping too! ????
I absolutely love homemade jams! And plum, yummy. Too bad we don’t have this variety here since plum is one of my favorites. I love opening a jar of jam in the winter and tasting a little of summer.
Thanks Gretchen, I agree! Except my jam doesn’t seem to last through to the winter!!!! lol 🙂
Mine only lasts because I make so much! This summer it was most.y strawberry vanilla and several different blueberry jams.
sounds delicious!!! Maybe I need to make bigger batches!!! 🙂
Looks yummy! Didn’t know it’s know as Japanese plum – ‘Biwa’ in Japanese. Now in the season over there? Very interesting cos here it’s June, before the rainy season + summer.
Oh! Yummy!!!!
I wish I could give people samples online!!! 🙂 yum!
Hmmm now that is not a bad idea 🙂 lol
Imagine how many followers a person would have then!!!! haha
But with good reason 🙂 lol!
Homemade jam, yum!
Yup! It’s so good! My favourite jam! 🙂