Damson Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Cook 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.
Add ½ pound of sugar for every 2 pounds of fruit.
Set the fruit over a fire and boil quickly until it begins to look dry.
Remove the stones and stir in the sugar.
Finish and pot
Simmer for 2 hours slowly, then boil quickly for 30 minutes until the sides of the pan candy.
Pour the jam into potting pans or dishes about 1 inch thick to cool.
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 tart flavour that form the body of the jam.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it concentrates, helps it set and keep.
The step that matters
Long simmer and final boil. Sugar must be cooked down to a thick, concentrated syrup for the jam to set. Simmering slowly, then boiling quickly until the pan sides candy, reaches that stage. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam that spoils more easily.
“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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