“In the airy chambers beneath the rookery, his girl served them boiled eggs, stewed plums, and porridge, while Pycelle served the pontifications.” -A Clash of Kings
Stewed Plums
Our Thoughts:
These stewed plums are like a simpler version of our Medieval Plum Mousse recipe. The fruit breaks down and mixes with the honey and cinnamon, resulting in mushy spoonfuls of delightfulness. It’s a great way to used plums that are slightly underripe or out of season, and make them into a wonderful topping for a dessert (Ice Cream! Cake!), or as a sweeter side for a slice of meat.
Stewed Plums Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 cups plums, pit removed and cut into small wedges
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 cup water
In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes. Check the softness of the fruit, and continue to simmer until the slices are very soft.
Allow to cool slightly, and serve warm or cold.
So simple and so good. Love it!
What other fruits can you suggest? It’s a tad hard to get fresh plums where I come from :(
I think this approach would work equally well with any stone fruit. Apples can also be stewed, but you should keep an eye on them so they don’t turn into applesauce.
I bet peaches would be great like this too
This is very similar to how I preserve pears and that makes a wonderful dessert and would be great over ice cream. I look forward to trying this with plums the next time I run across plums for a good price. Might also be a very good way to preserve the little native plums when we have good crops of those.
How do you preserve your pears? Is it like this or is it a lot more sugar like they do in jam recipes.?
Did you leave the skin on the plums? It doesn’t look like it in the picture, but the slices have such a beautiful purple colour.
You know, I did peel them, but the skin was that very dark, vibrant color that you see in the photo. It did darken a bit during the stewing, but it’s mostly as it started!
So I tried making this without peeling the plums and substituting maple syrup for the honey. It turned out delicious, although I think I would reduce the amount of water I used, or boil at a higher temperature. It didn’t reduce quite as much as I would have liked.
Hey! I just made this tonight for a dessert using peaches and I loved it. Its simple and doesn’t taste overly sweet, also its natural no artificial sweeteners so I don’t feel gross while eating it. I liked it and I will defiantly use it again in the future I want to try it with plums and apricots. Thanks for posting this!