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Damson Preserves

A preserve made by cooking damsons with sugar and water until they open and then simmering them.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Damson Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Prick each damson with a needle.

  2. Dissolve the sugar in ½ cup of water and heat it until it simmers.

Cook the damsons

  1. Add as many damsons as will fit on top and cook until they open.

  2. Remove the opened damsons and place them on a dish.

  3. Repeat with the remaining damsons.

  4. Once all damsons are cooked, return them to the kettle and simmer until done.

Jar

  1. Transfer the preserves to jars and seal them.

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

What each ingredient does

Damsons
Provide the fruit, pectin and tartness that give the preserve its body and flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps it set and keep.

The step that matters

Cook the damsons in batches until they open. Pricking lets syrup penetrate the skin, and cooking only as many damsons as fit keeps the syrup simmering evenly. Overcrowding drops the temperature and can leave fruit unevenly cooked or tough.

“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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