Powidła - Poland's versatile plum butter

Powidła contains no butter despite the English translation. It is nothing but Italian plums (called węgierki or Hungarian plums by Poles) cooked down very slowly (and stirred frequently) into a thick paste. If very ripe plums are used, no sugar need be added. In fact, nothing is added, no pectin or seasonings, and pasteurisation in water bath is not needed. Powidła in twist-off jars keeps at room temp. for years.

Besides obvious uses -- on bread and rolls, in naleśniki (crepes), in cakes and on puddings and ice-cream, it is used in Polish savoury cookery, esp. in pork, duck and goose dishes as well as bigos. The best brand I have found is Lowicz. Has anybody ever tried it?

In NL we call that "Jam" (pronounced: Sjem) and we make it not only from plums, but from all kinds of fruit like strawberries, cherries, and so on.

>^..^<

M-G (but the Dutch and German kitchen is virtually the same as the Polish, that's what you get with neighbours)

I've never heard it called butter before.


Tried? Tried??!? Eaten it thousands of times. The ready-made stuff from Lowicz (a processed food factory) is nothing like the real thing. A lady I know makes plenty of it, and it's wonderful. Not at all easy to make well.

It sounds very similar, in preperation, to what we call apple butter in America. It is popular with the Pennsylvania Dutch.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_butter

I love apple butter! It's big with my family here in Texas. Plums are my favorite fruit, so I'm sure I would like plum butter. I will have to try it sometime.

what is apple BUTTER????

Jam (dzem in Polish) is not the same as powidla.
"Powidla" apply only when prunes are the sole ingredient. Except for (rarely) a little bit of water, nothing is added.

"Dzem" (jam), on the other hand, in addition to the fruit, contain lotsa sugar and sometimes gelatine.

pwnd. lol

the plum stuff gives you runs and is on the gross side and i love plums too.. yuk


he's only kind of Polish.


are you kidding? it's such a southern thing too... hmm


you're kind of right but at the same time, not really: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_preserves

Mmmm... naleśniki z powidłami.
I just love the fruity sourness combined with sweet pastry.

Never had runs ... but then our powidła were all homemade.

i put some in a saucepan, added some water, brown sugar, chilli paste, fresh minced ginger & garlic brought it to a boil & let cool.

it made a wicked plum sauce that I dip my homemade chicken fingers in. :)

whatever... picture and description, please...

^^^ are yo kidding me?


google.com/images?q=apple%20butter


it's like butter made of apples..lol.. it's kind of like thick apple souse.. a bit thicker and sweeter though..

Merged: It's węgierki (Polish-Italian plums) eating time!

This time of year the węgierki (Italian plums) are plentiful. Got any good recipes for powidła, plum soup, dumplings, etc.?

i used to buy it as a spread, and put it on sweet cinammon/raisin bagels. mmmm!!!!!!

I know this thread is over six years old but I've only just discovered plum butter. My local Tesco sells it and it's delicious. I went into a Polski Sklep to see if I could get an even better one. The guy didn't understand what I was looking for. He tried to be helpful, but for him, plum butter wasn't a thing. We finally ended up by all the jams. All labelled exclusively in Polish. I didn't know what the Polish for plum butter was and he couldn't imagine something called plum butter. I don't blame him. Until I'd tried it, plum and butter didn't really go together (I know, there's no butter in plum butter, apart from that which has oozed into it from my toast).

My question is, what should I ask for in my local Polski Sklep to find plum butter (and I'll be running any answers that I'm fortunate to receive through Google Translate just to screen out any rude words).

powidła śliwkowe

Actually powidła should do it, pronounced poh-VEE-dwah

Powidła. Very easy to make at home.

Regarding the recipe at the beginning of this thread, I do the same thing with apricots. Use the smaller "Manchurian" apricots, not the large ones (too watery). They can be almost ripe, or ripe (or a mixture of both). Just add a cup of sugar to a potful of fruit that's been washed and divided in halves (throw out the pits), let them get soggy in that sugar for a bit, then slowly heat them to a boil (takes about 20 - 30 minutes) stirring frequently. A dash of lemon juice or Tang at the end really perks up the flavor. If you keep everything sterile you can hot pack them in mason jars and store them on a shelf. I use them for lots of things.