Homemade Plum Butter (Czech Povidla)

If your grandmother kept a jar of something dark, thick, and sweet as late summer in the pantry, it was most likely povidla, Czech plum butter. Spread on fresh chleba bread or tucked into kolaches (koláče) as a plum filling, this humble preserve has been part of Czech kitchens for generations. Today, I will show you how to make your own batch at home.

What is plum butter? Plum butter, in Czech povidla, is a rich, deep-colored fruit spread made by slowly cooking down ripe plums until their juices evaporate and the flavor concentrates. Unlike plum jam, it needs no added pectin and much less sugar. The long, gentle simmering alone makes povidla dense and glossy. Czechs often finish it with a pinch of warm spices and a shot of rum.

My recipe is the traditional stovetop method: the plums rest overnight with sugar and a splash of vinegar, then simmer for 3 to 3 ½ hours the next day. It asks for patience more than skill; the only step that truly matters is stirring often toward the end. I cook a big batch every plum season, and the jars keep in my pantry all year.

Jump to

• ➜ Why this povidla recipe works
• ➜ The story of povidla in the Czech lands
• Czech pronunciation
• ➜ Ingredients
• Equipment
• ➜ How to make plum butter
• ➜ Video recipe
• ➜ Variations
• ➜ How to use plum butter
• ➜ How to store
• ➜ FAQ
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

➜ Why this povidla recipe works

• Start with less sugar than you think you need. As the butter cooks down, the plums' own sweetness concentrates, and too much sugar keeps povidla from setting thick, even after cooling. You can always sweeten at the end; taste first.
• Do not skip the vinegar. A splash of 5% apple cider vinegar poured over the plums overnight brightens the plum flavor, keeps the color rich, and draws out juice for easier cooking. It is an old Czech trick, not a typo!
• Judge doneness by the plate, not the clock. How long povidla need depends on how much water your plums hold; 3 hours is a guide, not a promise. You will find the simple cold-plate test at STEP 7.

"My brother sniffed the air and said, 'What are you making? It smells like Grandma's kitchen.' We last saw our grandmother about 65 years ago… It was a real thrill to taste homemade lekvar again!"

Ann

If you are stocking up on kolache fillings, also try my poppy seed filling (maková náplň), sweet cheese filling (tvarohová náplň), or even sweet cabbage filling, less traditional but soo good!

➜ The story of povidla in the Czech lands

Plum butter has deep roots in Czech history. In the 18th century, during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, fruit trees were planted on a large scale along roads, to improve traffic safety and to provide fruit for the people. Plums soon became especially important: they were rich in natural sugar, while white sugar was still a costly luxury.

Villagers cooked large batches of plum butter in cauldrons set over an open fire, with anyone passing by stopping to stir so it would not burn. The butter was cooked very thick, without any added sugar, and lasted for months in the pantry. When a housewife wanted to bake with povidla, she softened it with a little water, sometimes flavored it with spices, and used it in both sweet and savory dishes.

For over 70 years, Czechs and Slovaks shared a common state called Czechoslovakia. Plum butter is just as beloved in today's Slovakia, where it is known as slivkový lekvár. If your family came from Slovak or Hungarian lands and called it lekvar, you are remembering the very same thing.

The plums of my childhood grew on the old trees at my grandparents' place. The ripe ones my grandma and I turned into plum compote (švestkový kompot) or povidla, and the fallen ones my grandpa distilled into slivovitz (slivovice), the famous Czech plum brandy. To this day, my mom uses povidla for her kecanej koláč, a sheet cake specialty from our home region of Podještědí in northern Bohemia.

➜ Ingredients

• Fresh plums, ideally Italian prune plums: small and oval, with a freestone pit that separates easily. They should be ripe and sweet, so they cook down into a naturally thick butter with no added pectin. Damsons, the small tart plums of Britain and Ireland, work beautifully as well. The season is short, from mid-August into September, so when you spot them at the market, do not hesitate.
• Granulated sugar, the amount depends on how sweet your plums are. It rounds out the flavor, supports the plums' natural pectin, and helps the jars keep longer in the pantry.
• Apple cider vinegar with 5% acidity, an ingredient common in old Czech recipes. Czech vinegar (ocet) has 8% acidity, so the milder apple cider vinegar is the closest match abroad.
• Czech rum (tuzemák), optional but very welcome: a shot in the middle of cooking adds a warm, caramel-like aroma. Real tuzemák is hard to find abroad, but Austrian Stroh or a spiced rum such as Kirkland from Costco works well. And if a friend from the Czech Republic ever visits, ask them to bring a bottle!
• Spices, a pinch each of ground star anise, cloves, and cinnamon, stirred in at the very end. Never add too much; you can adjust the flavor later. I grind the whole spices in a dedicated coffee grinder and sift them through a coarse sieve. If grinding whole spices is new to you, see how to grind whole spices at home.

➜ How to make plum butter

STEP 1: Prepare the plums. Wash and dry the plums. Cut each one lengthwise around, open it, and remove the pit. Cut the halves into smaller pieces and place them in a large pot.

👉 TIP: Wear disposable food gloves when pitting and cutting plums; they can stain your fingers and nails brown for days.

Do I need to peel the plums? No. The skins give the butter color and body, and they cook down completely.

STEP 2: Add sugar and vinegar. Stir the sugar and vinegar into the plums. Cover the pot with a clean cloth and leave it on the kitchen counter overnight. This simple trick draws out juice and flavor, which makes the cooking easier and faster.

STEP 3: Start cooking. In the morning, stir the plums; they should be sitting in plenty of juice. Place the pot on the stove over high heat and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Do not cover with a lid: plum butter thickens by letting the liquid evaporate.

👉 If you cook on a gas stove, place a heat diffuser or cast iron plate under the pot to spread the heat evenly.

STEP 4: Skim the foam. During cooking, foam will rise to the surface. Skim it off with a spoon or a flat sieve and discard it. This keeps the butter smooth.

STEP 5: Simmer, thicken, and stir. Once boiling, lower the heat so the mixture simmers gently, and stir from time to time. As the liquid evaporates and the butter thickens, lower the heat further and stir more often so it does not scorch.

Should I stir constantly? Not at the beginning. But the thicker the butter gets, the more often you need to stir, and near the end I do not leave the pot unattended at all.

STEP 6: Add rum (optional). After about two hours, stir in a shot of rum. The butter will thin slightly, but it will thicken again as it cooks.

STEP 7: Check for doneness. After about 3 to 3 ½ hours, depending on your plums, the butter should be thick, glossy, and richly flavored. Drop a spoonful onto a cold plate: the mound should hold its shape, no juice should seep around the edges, and it should stay put even when you tilt the plate.

STEP 8: Add the spices. Stir in the ground star anise, cloves, and cinnamon. Taste, and adjust the sweetness with a little extra sugar if needed. In my experience, the butter is usually sweet enough on its own.

STEP 9: Fill the jars. Set a wide preserving funnel on a clean, dry, heated jar and fill it with hot plum butter. Wipe the rims clean if needed, screw the lids on tightly, and turn the jars upside down right away. Leave them like that for about an hour.

👉 Butter smeared on the rim can glue the lid shut, and opening the jar months later becomes a wrestling match.

➜ Video recipe

If you are more of a visual person, I recorded a quick video of making plum butter. You can find it on my YouTube channel here: Plum butter (povidla) short recipe.

➜ Variations

• Prepared another way, some cooks grind the pitted plums in a meat grinder before cooking, while others chop or tear them by hand. In the old days, plums went into the pot unpitted, and the finished butter was strained through a coarse sieve.
• Baked in the oven, a popular low-effort method in the Czech Republic: spread the marinated plums in a deep baking pan and bake uncovered, first at 450°F (230°C) for about 30 minutes, then at 285°F (140°C) for another 3 to 6 hours until thick. No stirring is needed, and nothing splatters over your stovetop.
• Cooked in a slow cooker, the modern hands-off way: first on HIGH for about 2 hours until the plums soften, then on LOW for 8 to 10 hours, ideally overnight. Prop the lid open with a wooden spoon handle so the steam can escape, and give it a stir now and then.

➜ How to use plum butter

Plum butter made this way is perfect for baking: it holds its shape in the oven and will not melt or run like softer jams. It shines in Moravian kolache (koláče), buchty sweet buns, and plum-filled crescent cookies (povidlové šátečky), but it is just as delicious on a slice of a rohlík bread roll. Some Czech cooks also fill fruit dumplings (ovocné knedlíky) with povidla instead of fresh fruit.

In the old days, Czechs also turned povidla into a warm plum butter sauce (švestková omáčka), served alongside meat and dumplings. And if plum season has left you with more fruit than jars, browse all the plum recipes on my blog. Dobrou chuť!

➜ How to store

As it cools, plum butter thickens even more. Store the sealed jars in a cool, dark pantry, where they keep well until the next plum season. Once a jar is opened, keep it in the refrigerator.

From time to time, check the jars in the pantry to make sure the surface stays clean, with no sign of mold.

➜ FAQ

📖 Recipe