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Dessert

Damson Cheese

A preserved cheese made from damsons, powdered sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Damson Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the damsons

  1. Remove the damsons from their stalks and leaves.

  2. Place the damsons in a jar.

  3. Cover the jar with white paper.

  4. Bake the damsons in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until soft.

  5. While hot, rub the damsons through a colander to extract the pulp and juice.

Make the cheese

  1. Transfer the pulp and juice to a saucepan.

  2. Add powdered sugar to taste.

  3. Boil the mixture over moderate heat at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.

  4. Stir the mixture constantly to prevent burning.

  5. Add the damson kernels to the mixture and stir.

  6. Pour the mixture into cups or molds.

  7. Let the mixture stand for a day.

Seal and store

  1. Cut pieces of writing paper to fit the tops of the cups.

  2. Dip the paper pieces in brandy.

  3. Place the brandy-dipped paper on top of the cups.

  4. Store the finished product in a dry place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Damsons
Provide the fruit pulp and juice that form the body of the cheese.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks down.
Brandy
Adds aroma to the paper seal placed on top of the cups.

The step that matters

Constant stirring during the long boil. The mixture is thick and sugary, so it scorches easily on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring prevents burning and lets the pulp reduce evenly into a firm, spreadable cheese.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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