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I was given some Victoria plums the other day which were lovely to eat straight from the box. Nice sweet flesh (although the skins were slightly bitter in the usual plummy way). I put some in a crumble and the cooking seemed to change them completely. The whole fruits (and the juice) turned horribly bitter. It wasn't a lack of sugar - they were like eating paracetomols! I was sooooo disappointed as I wanted to make jam, but decided it wasn't worth risking wasting time and ingredients just in case that turned out inedible too.
I'd love to hear if anyone has experienced a similar situation and any thoughts on cause and/or cure...

How strange! I don't have any ideas but one year our greengages were not sweet when ripe and I've never solved that mystery. Maybe some years there are odd things going on with our fruit that can never be explained.....

I guess never quite knowing how things will turn out is part of the fun sometimes. I ended up composting the plums this time though, which is a huge shame

Ju24, I could have written your post word for word! I have always found our home grown victorias incredibly bitter once cooked - but they still make lovely jam - albeit with a kind of marmalade edge! My husband has just gone to scald another batch to see if removing the skins will help.

just had skinless plum sponge - not bitter at all, hurrah!

Found this comment on another site......" suspects it’s to do with the breakdown of sugars that give that bitter taste. When you’re cooking the sugars at high heat you get non-enzymatic browning which occurs either through caramelisation or something called the Maillard reaction. That is an interaction of proteins and sugars. A free amino group of a protein reacts with a carbon-R group of a sugar, producing something called N-glycosylamine. This is unstable and is basically a downstream product. It breaks down into something called the melanoidins which can be bitter to taste."

Hhhmmm .....just what I was thinking meself! I think it means ...skin your plums!



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Actually I like a little bitter note with the sweet taste as long as it is not too dominant. Like in orange jam.

I found a little plum tree growing on my property, with small purple plums, don't think they were bullace (?) Made a plum and ginger crumble which was lovely, also made some jam and it is horrible, the worst jam I have ever made, it tasted ok to start with then there is a bitter aftertaste, never experienced this before and I have made damson jelly, myroloban plum jam, etc and never tasted this before