Excellent Damson Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Bake or stew the damsons until tender.
Drain off the juice.
Skin and stone the damsons.
Return ⅓ to ½ cup of the juice to the fruit.
Weigh the damsons.
Make the cheese
Boil them over a brisk fire until they form a dry paste.
Add 6 ounces of pounded sugar for each pound of damsons.
Stir until dissolved.
Boil the mixture again.
Stir continuously until it leaves the pan dry and adheres to the spoon.
Test the mixture; it should not stick to your fingers when lightly touched.
Quickly press the mixture into pans or molds.
Cover and store
Once cool, cover with a paper dipped in spirit.
Tie another layer over it.
Store in a dry place.
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 body and pectin that set the paste into a firm, sliceable cheese.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps the paste set firm and keep well during storage.
The step that matters
Cooking the paste to the dry stage. Fruit must be boiled long enough to drive off water and concentrate sugar and pectin. Stopping early leaves a soft mixture that will not set; overcooking can scorch and make it hard.
“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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