Damson Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Bake or boil the damsons in a stone jar in a saucepan of water or on a hot hearth.
Pour off some of the juice and set the fruit over a fire in the pan.
Boil quickly until it begins to look dry, then remove the stones.
Make the cheese
Add the sugar and stir well, then simmer slowly for 2 hours.
Boil quickly for another 30 minutes until the sides of the pan candy.
Pour the mixture into potting pans or dishes about 1 inch thick to set.
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 pulp and natural pectin that set the cheese as it cooks down.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps the mixture thicken and set firm when cooked down.
The step that matters
Boil quickly until the sides of the pan candy. Sugar concentrates as water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves the cheese soft and runny, while cooking too long can scorch it at the pan's base.
“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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