Plum sauce has a lot of great uses, and home made is so much better than anything you can buy in the store. This sauce makes a delicious dipping sauce, is great for meat, such as pork, and is also great as a stir-fry sauce. I hope plums are still in season in your area so you can whip up a batch!

This recipe comes from this small-batch preserving book. We only made a couple modifications, including using dates instead of raisins, and doing a larger batch (3 cup yield – I think not!!), so as written here this will yield 6-7 half pints.

Ingredients:
18 – 20 plums (about 3 pounds)
3 cups brown sugar
3 cups finely chopped onion
2 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup dates
1 tbsp soy sauce
6 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice

Here’s how we made it.

Chop or food process the plums. The one pictured is actually at a friend’s house, but I just got this one and am l loving it so far. Soup and sauces galore! And I just used it to slice a ton of carrots into coins to make pickled carrots and it was aweeesome! But I digress, back to the sauce.

You should end up with about 3.5 cups of plum puree. Chop or food process the onions and dates as well and set them aside. I like a pretty fine chop for this sauce.

Combine the plums, sugar, vinegar and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. If you’d rather not use sugar, I bet that honey to taste would be super delicious in this recipe as well. Boil the mixture for a few minutes, then add the remaining ingredients.

Look at those adorable little cups!

Return to a boil and reduce the heat. Allow the mixture to simmer, uncovered, until the desired thickness is achieved. Continue to stir occasionally, and prepare the canner, jars, and lids when you are approaching a nice consistency. 45 minutes to an hour is probably good.

Fill the hot jars with the sauce, leaving a half inch head space. Wipe rims, apply lids, and tighten bands finger tip tight. Process the jars in a boiling water bath canner, covered by at least 1 inch of boiling water, for 15 minutes for half pints. After the 15 minutes, turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes, and remove the jar to a hot pad or towel. Cool 12-24 hours, remove bands, check seals, wipe, label, and store.

Enjoy this delicious sauce as a stir fry sauce, dipping sauce or however else you desire.

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