Damson Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Bake or boil the fruit in a stone jar in a saucepan of water or on a hot hearth.
Pour off some of the juice.
For every 2 pounds of fruit, weigh out ½ pound of sugar.
Cook the jam
Set the fruit over a fire in the pan and let it boil quickly until it begins to look dry.
Remove the stones and stir in the sugar well.
Simmer slowly for 2 hours, then boil quickly for 30 minutes until the sides of the pan candy.
Pot the jam
Pour the jam into potting pans or dishes about 1 inch thick to allow it to set firm.
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 main fruit flavour, acidity and natural pectin that help the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam, and as it cooks down it thickens the jam and helps it keep.
The step that matters
Boiling until the sides of the pan candy. Sugar and pectin must concentrate to the setting point for the jam to gel. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while cooking too long makes it stiff and can caramelise and scorch.
“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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