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To Dry Cherries or Damsons

A method of drying cherries or damsons by boiling them in a sugar syrup and then sun‑drying or oven‑drying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Dry Cherries or Damsons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Remove the stems from the cherries or damsons and weigh them.

Make the syrup and soak

  1. In a kettle, combine the brown sugar with enough water to dissolve it and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim the syrup, then add the fruit and bring to a boil again.

  3. Carefully remove the scum from the top, then pour the mixture into a jar.

  4. After three days, boil the syrup again and pour it hot over the fruit in the jar.

Dry and store

  1. Three days later, remove the fruit and dry it in the hot sun or in a 350°F (175°C) oven, stirring occasionally.

  2. Once dry, store the fruit in paper bags in a dry place for use in winter pies.

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

Cherries or damsons
Provide the fruit that is dried and later used in winter pies.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as a syrup, draws moisture out of it during soaking.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup over the fruit after three days. Sugar syrup draws water out of the fruit through osmosis and preserves it. Boiling the syrup again before pouring it hot keeps it clean and helps it penetrate the fruit evenly, so the fruit is properly sweetened and stable before drying.

“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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