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Dessert

To Preserve Damsons

A method for preserving damsons by layering them with sugar, baking, and making a syrup to encase the fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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To Preserve Damsons

Ingredients

Directions

Layer and cover

  1. Layer damsons and sugar alternately in jars.

  2. Cover jars with bladder or strong paper.

Bake slowly

  1. Place jars in the oven after baking bread.

  2. Leave jars until the oven cools.

Make the syrup

  1. Strain the syrup.

  2. Boil the syrup until thick.

Pack and seal

  1. Place damsons in small jars.

  2. Pour syrup over them to cover.

  3. Seal jars with wet bladder.

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
Supply the main fruit flavour and the tartness that balances the sweet sugar.
Pounded loaf sugar
Preserves the fruit and, boiled down, thickens the syrup into a sweet, set coating.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until thick. Sugar must be concentrated enough to thicken the syrup and inhibit spoilage. Stopping early leaves a thin syrup that is more likely to ferment or mould in the jars.

“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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