Damson Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Stew the damson fruit until tender.
Drain off the juice.
Remove the skins and stones from the fruit.
Return the pulp to the pot.
Add half of the juice back.
Weigh the mixture.
Cook the paste
Boil the mixture over a clear fire until it forms a dry paste.
Stir in 6 oz. of sugar for every pound of fruit.
Keep stirring until it leaves the sides of the pan.
Check if it adheres to the spoon.
Pot and seal
Turn the mixture into small pots or china molds.
Let it cool.
Cover with paper dipped in spirit.
Seal as usual.
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
- Damson fruit
- Provides the main body, flavour and natural pectin that help the cheese set into a firm paste.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, with long boiling, thickens the mixture and helps it keep.
The step that matters
Boiling to a dry paste. Sugar is added to fruit that is still wet, so the mixture must be cooked long enough to drive off water and reach a thick, dry consistency. Stopping too early leaves it runny and prone to spoiling, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and make it stiff.
“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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