Name: Damson Tart
Ingredients: Short paste; 3 pints of damsons; 4 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar (or to taste)

Damson Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Short paste
3 pints of damsons
4 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar (or to taste)

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Prepare the short paste crust as you would for an apple tart.
Place an inverted cup or a funnel in the center of the pie dish to retain the juice.

Fill and bake

Half fill the dish with damsons, add the brown sugar, then add the remaining damsons.
Cover with the paste, brush lightly with cold water, and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

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 tart, juicy fruit filling that gives the dish its main flavour.
Brown sugar: Sweetens the damson filling and balances the fruit's natural tartness.
Short paste: Forms the crisp, tender crust that encloses the filling.

“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.