Damson Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove the stalks and leaves from the damsons.
Place the damsons in a pan and barely cover them with water.
Heat the pan and stir the fruit until it becomes pulp.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the mixture through a flannel bag.
For every quart of juice, add 2.5 pounds of white sugar.
Boil for 10 minutes and skim carefully.
Bottle
Once cooled, bottle and cork the syrup.
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
- Fresh ripe damsons
- Provide the fruit juice and flavour that form the base of the syrup.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, once boiled, helps thicken it into a syrup.
The step that matters
Boil for 10 minutes and skim carefully. Sugar must dissolve fully into the juice before boiling, and skimming removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the syrup and affect its keeping quality.
“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.