Name: Chinese Plum Sauce Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h 40 min
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 750 g Plums; 250 ml Red Wine Vinegar; 1.5 Tsp Chili flakes; 1 Stick Cinnamon; 3 Star Anise; 1 Tbsp Szechuan Pepper Corns; 6 Garlic Cloves; 75 g Ginger; 35 ml Dark Soy Sauce; 35 ml Light Soy Sauce; 50 ml Mirin; 100 g Honey; 75 g Light Brown Sugar

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Homemade Chinese plum sauce is so easy to make at home, using either a slow cooker or stovetop. It is perfect with duck or even spread onto a pork sandwich.

Square image of homemade Chinese plum sauce being decanted into storage jars

Homemade Plum Sauce

This recipe is very much the product of us having loads of plum trees at home. But plums are cheap and plentiful throughout the summer and this recipe is a great way to take advantage of that.

Of course, I have a duck with plum sauce recipe to serve this with.

I have even served it with cucumber and pancakes with the leftover duck legs from my whole roast duck recipe.

But it is fantastic as a sauce on sandwiches, it is particularly good with brie and bacon or leftover pork.

Portrait image of Chinese plum sauce being poured over a rosy pink duck breast

Recipe Hints and Tips.

This is a super simple recipe, with no special skills required.

You will note that my version of plum sauce is a little less thick than some. This is because I add no cornflour or other thickening agents.

This offers a sauce with much more flexibility. In its state straight from the bottle, it can be warmed up and poured over a piece of meat like a traditional sauce.

But it is very easy to make a cornflour slurry and thicken this up in minutes which will make it perfect for duck and pancakes.

This sauce will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

You can freeze it in individual portions and it will last up to 6 months.

I have even canned this recipe and used it two years after canning and it was perfect!

Loads

Chinese Plum Sauce Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes

At the right time of year plums are both cheap and plentiful, I love to make this simple Chinese style plum sauce and keep it around all year.

Ingredients

750 g Plums
250 ml Red Wine Vinegar
1.5 Tsp Chili flakes
1 Stick Cinnamon
3 Star Anise
1 Tbsp Szechuan Pepper Corns
6 Garlic Cloves
75 g Ginger
35 ml Dark Soy Sauce
35 ml Light Soy Sauce
50 ml Mirin
100 g Honey
75 g Light Brown Sugar

Instructions

Heat the plums and red wine vinegar in a pan and bring to a boil.
Whilst this is coming to the boil, roughly hack apart the ginger and crush the garlic cloves with the heel of your hand.
Add all of the remaining ingredients and stir until the sugar and honey have dissolved.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 90 minutes
Alternatively, you can just throw everything into a slow cooker and cook on low for at least 6 hours, stir once as soon as it gets hot to distrubute all of the ingredients.
Pass the cooked plums first through a rough sieve to get rid of the solids and then through a fine sieve to refine.
You should now have approximately 750ml litres of plum sauce.
If you have cooked this in a slow cooker you will need to reduce the sauce by half before bottling.

Notes

The calorific value for this recipe refers to the full amount that the recipe.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1360Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 4712mgCarbohydrates: 318gFiber: 19gSugar: 258gProtein: 19g

Calorific details are provided by a third-party application and are to be used as indicative figures only.

Sue

Saturday 20th of April 2024

Hi, the plum sauce recipe looks great, how long would the batch last if I bottled it ?. As I don't want to use it all in one go.

Brian Jones

Sunday 21st of April 2024

I usually freeze this rather than bottling it, and I would not want to "guess" at how long it will be safe for in the fridge, there is not a huge amount of acid/sugar in this and as a result there is not a great deal to preserve the fruit.

But it will freeze for up to 6 months.

Enjoy

Brian

Tania @ The Cook's Pyjamas

Monday 7th of March 2016

Is the honey in this just to add sweetness? Could I replace it with more brown sugar or with an alternative liquid sweetener? Plums are just coming into season now so I would love to give this a go.

Yes the honey just adds sweetness and a little texture, but you could replace with more sugar or molasses or any thing else really. I find plums vary so much in sweetness that the requirement changes quite a lot, so if needed you could add the 'honey sub' at the end to taste.

Renee

Wednesday 2nd of September 2015

This sounds AMAZING!!!!!

Thanks Renee, it really is one of our favourites and we have litres of the stuff knocking around to spruce up sandwiches or to add something nice to meals over the winter period when the available fair is pretty sparse.

J @ A Hot Southern Mess

Tuesday 4th of August 2015

Oh yum! What a great idea to stick it in the slow cooker! I love when the crock pot is involved! The plum sounds just delicious!

Wednesday 5th of August 2015

Thank you, our plums are ready in the height of summer so sticking it in the slow cooker alleviates some of the 'too hot in the kitchen' nonsense ;)

monika

Sunday 26th of July 2015

Hi - looks like a good one. I've got a recipe for plums (and apples) that make a really good version of a fruity steak sauce fairly famous at one time - the fruity version no longer available. But would love to try this when prune plums become available (August up here in Canada).

Thanks Monika... prune and plums sounds like a great combination, almost like a HP fruity sauce I remember from growing up in the UK :)