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Preserve

Mussel Plum Cheese and Jelly

A preserve made from plum juice set as a jelly and from boiled plum pulp pressed into a firm cheese, both sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Mussel Plum Cheese and Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the plum jelly

  1. Fill large stone jars with the fruit, which should be ripe, dry, and sound.

  2. Set the jars into an oven from which the bread has been drawn several hours, and let them remain all night; or, if this cannot conveniently be done, place them in pans of water and boil them gently until the plums are tender and have yielded their juice to the utmost.

  3. Pour the juice from the plums, strain it through a jelly bag, and weigh it.

  4. Boil the juice rapidly for twenty-five minutes.

  5. Break three pounds of sugar small for every four pounds of juice, add it, and stir until dissolved.

  6. Continue boiling quickly for ten minutes longer, removing all the scum.

  7. Pour the preserve into small moulds or pans and turn it out when wanted for table.

Make the plum cheese

  1. Skin and stone the plums from which the juice has been poured.

  2. Weigh the plums and boil them an hour and a quarter over a brisk fire, stirring them constantly.

  3. To three pounds of fruit add one pound of sugar, beaten to powder.

  4. Boil the preserve for another half hour.

  5. Press it into shallow pans or moulds.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Plums (in the method)
Provide the fruit, pectin and juice that set and flavour the preserve.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps it thicken and set as it boils.

The step that matters

Stirring the plums constantly while they boil. Plums and sugar are thick and sugary, so they scorch easily on the base of the pan. Constant stirring spreads the heat and prevents burnt flavour and dark specks.

“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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