Damson Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Bake or boil the damsons in a stone jar until tender and the stones separate easily.
If using the skins, remove the stones with a spoon; if not, strain the pulp through a coarse sieve.
Measure the fruit and place it in a preserving pan over a brisk fire.
Make the jam
Boil quickly until all liquid evaporates and the fruit is dry.
Add ½ pound of powdered sugar for every quart of fruit and continue boiling until the mixture candies to the sides of the pan.
Crack the stones, skin the kernels, and boil them in the jam for appearance, if desired.
Pot and cool
Pour the mixture into shallow vessels like potting jars or saucers and let it cool before serving.
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 form the jam's body and flavour.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, boiled down with the fruit, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boiling down until the mixture candies to the sides of the pan. Sugar must be added only after the fruit is dry, then boiled until the concentration is high enough to set. Undercooking leaves a runny jam that may spoil; overcooking can scorch the sugar and darken the flavour.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.