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Plum jam - removal of pits - suggestions please

 
Jill Dyer
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Three-quarters ripe Santa Rosa Plums - enough to make jam, rescued from the tree, all that was left after the birds had had their share.
Left to ripen further.  Totally impossible to remove the pits,   so cooked them up and sieved out the pits.  Kitchen and me looked like the aftermath of a massacre, and besides, took absolute ages.    Counted plums in and pits out and came up with one pit short of the count.  Well Drat.

So, the question is, can anyone suggest an easier way to get rid of the pits.    No hurry - information needed for next year

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Timothy Norton
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What was your process for removing the pits?

I have not tried to batch process a bunch of plums, but I have used a paring knife to remove pits. I just slice in half, twist the halves apart, and fish out the stone. Plums come in freestone and clingstone varieties so be wary of which you have. Might be worth eating clingstones fresh and processing freestones if you have the luxury of choice?

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K Kaba
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What about a peach-pitter? They look sort of like a spoon with a narrow head, and the sides of the head are sharper than a spoon would be. You cut the fruit in half, and sort of sideways scoop out the pits.
 
Jill Dyer
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@Timothy Norton - sieved out the pits (mostly) using a large sieve and the soup ladle;  tried the paring knife approach - no luck, too much flesh still stuck to the pits;  maybe a feature of picking under-ripe - definitely a cling stone. . .

@K Baba - peach pitter a possibility, I shall look for one between now and next crop.  With a modicum of good luck and some blind birds, there may be a few peaches next year too.

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Joseph Lofthouse
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I really like a steam juicer. https://www.amazon.com//dp/B0D12S644K/

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I've had that problem too - it takes ages to skim the stones off (and they're hot!). Another thing you could try is cutting the stones out as best you can, then put them in a cloth bag and cook them along with the pulp and skin. When done the juices can be squeezed out of the bag. It doesn't want to be a fine cloth, even a net bag would do. You could even make one, like macrame or crochet.....maybe there's a market there?

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Megan Palmer
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Here is a photo of the peach pitter that I bought.

Before I bought the peach pitter, I used to use a thin inexpensive teaspoon bought from a second hand shop.

The thinner spoons are better for levering open jar lids too - just wedge between the lid and jar to break the vacuum.

I have made small drawstring bags of fine butter muslin that the stones go into and the drawstring is long enough to loop around the edge of the pot where the handle is to make it easier to remove.

The only bag that I could find to photograph is a small teabag version that I use for homemade dried herbs.

Not strictly drawstrings because that would be too fiddly, I tie the cotton tape around the top.
20241223_071455.jpg
Peach pitter & thin teaspoon
Peach pitter & thin teaspoon
20241223_072836.jpg
Muslin bag
Muslin bag
 
Brian Holmes
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Did you try thin slicing the plums while still attached to the pits? This way each slice has a minimum section clinging to the center. Pair that with a twisting of the knife when you're done and it could help shear the fruit away from the pit.

Wish it could be cooked and fed through a food mill, but pits would appear a no go there outside of industrial setups.

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Mk Neal
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Sorry to hear the sieve method did not work so well for out. I've found that the easiest way to remove the pits from small stone fruits. However, you do need to cook the fruit until it is really falling off the pits, and it's easiest to use a strainer with very large holes--not a mesh sieve, but a "spaghetti strainer" type with round holes.

Another method, if you have a very large batch of fruit, is cooking the fruit until it really falls apart, and then beating the pulp until the pits settle toward the bottom, and you can ladle off the pulp on top. Works better with some fruits than others, depends on how tightly the fruit clings to the pit.

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Robert Ray
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OK not what it was intended for but I have used my crook spoon carving knife on some pesky peaches. I even thought about sharpening one side of a spoon to slide under the pits.
crooked-knife.jpg
[Thumbnail for crooked-knife.jpg]

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C. Letellier
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If all you are doing is jam just run it thru the foley.  Wash the fruit and remove stems.  Cook down and then run it thru the foley to push the paste of the fruit thru leaving the skins and pits above.  One to three turns forward and one backwards.  Keep repeating.  Scrape to a pile to hit forward again with a spatula occassionally.  Keep cycling it till the fruit is mostly thru and  the the skins and pits are left above.  If you are careful you don't lose any but if you think you messed up just run all the jam base thru the system again to get any pits or wads of skin missed.

Foley food mill

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Megan Palmer
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Mk Neal wrote:
Another method, if you have a very large batch of fruit, is cooking the fruit until it really falls apart, and then beating the pulp until the pits settle toward the bottom, and you can ladle off the pulp on top. Works better with some fruits than others, depends on how tightly the fruit clings to the pit.



Mk, here is a video of your beating method followed up with a colander to separate the plum stones.

https://permies.com/t/164194/plums/Plum-de-pitting-machine#2401960

There's an abundance of the small clingstone cherry plums growing wild throughout our area and no one bothers to pick them because the fruit are so small and fiddly to process.

 
Jill Dyer
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Many thanks to all you helpful people!  
Thanks to the local birds (cockatoos) which start on the fruit almost as soon as it forms - going for the seed inside the pits - I rarely get a large batch of anything. Trees are too tall to net, and I worry about the local lizards and snakes getting caught up in it. This batch of plums, about 3 kg, were quite small because we have had an exceptionally dry year, making them very fiddly.  Lots of challenges, and I really like substance in my jam, rather than jelly - seems wasteful to just dump the pulp.  That said, thanks for all the useful suggestions to follow up for next year.  Happy New Year to you all.

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You have to be warped to weave [ditto!]

 
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