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Black Currant Cheese
Gather the fruit on a dry day, and when the sun is on it. See that it is quite ripe, and remove the stalks and tops. Take equal quantities, by weight, of good loaf sugar--the best is the cheapest--and of currants; place them in a preserving-pan over a slow fire, or by the side of the fire, till the sugar has dissolved a little, then bring it gradually to a boil, stirring it carefully all the time, and removing the scum. Simmer for an hour or more, when the currants may be passed through a hair sieve, and it is ready for putting into moulds for use. Probable cost, about 1s. 3d. per pound.
A fruit cheese is a preserve boiled down until it sets firm enough to turn out of a mould and slice. The method here is sound; only the vocabulary and a few working details need translating.
- What "cheese" meansNo dairy is involved. A fruit cheese is a sugar preserve cooked past jam consistency until it will hold a cut edge, then set in a mould and sliced to eat with cold meat, game or hard cheese. Fruit butters are the softer, less-cooked relation.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a solid cone and broken up as needed, prized because it was cleaner than the brown sugars of the day. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct equivalent, weight for weight.
- Equal weightsOne pound of sugar to one pound of destalked currants. Blackcurrants are high in both pectin and acid, so this ratio sets readily; the long simmer is for evaporation and flavour rather than for coaxing a set.
- Preserving-panA wide, heavy, unlined-copper or stainless pan with a large surface area. Depth is the enemy here — the mixture spits as it thickens and scorches easily, so a wide pan and a low heat matter more than the material.
- Order of sievingThe recipe simmers first and sieves after, which is the traditional way but hard work. Sieving the cooked fruit before the final reduction, or cooking the currants in a little water and pressing them through first, gives the same result with less strain on your arm and less risk of catching the pan.
- Hair sieveA fine sieve of woven horsehair, the standard fine sieve of the period; it was also thought preferable to metal for acid fruit, which could taint. Any nylon or stainless fine-mesh sieve does the job now. Push the pulp through with a wooden spoon or use a mouli; a blender will not remove the skins and seeds.
- How to tell it is done"An hour or more" depends entirely on your pan. The cheese is ready when a wooden spoon drawn across the base leaves a clean channel that holds for a second or two before closing, and the mixture is noticeably heavier to stir. The recipe gives no temperature; if you use a sugar thermometer you will be taking it past ordinary jam setting point.
- Moulds and keepingLightly oil small straight-sided moulds or ramekins so the set cheese turns out. Cover closely and keep cool; the sugar concentration makes it keep for months, but once cut, refrigerate.
- The cost line1s 3d is one shilling and threepence in pre-decimal money, a probable-cost figure of the kind given throughout to let a housekeeper price her larder. It is of no use as a modern guide.
Fruit cheeses belong to a long English tradition of preserving a glut by boiling it down with its own weight in sugar until it sets solid emdash damson cheese is the best-known survivor, and quince cheese is the same idea that Spain still sells as membrillo. The instruction to gather the fruit on a dry day with the sun on it is practical rather than poetic: wet fruit dilutes the preserve and is likelier to spoil, and warm ripe currants give up their juice more readily. Blackcurrants were a kitchen-garden staple in Victorian Britain, valued for a sharpness that stands up to the large quantity of sugar these recipes demand, and a turned-out cheese, dark and sliceable, was commonly served with cold meat or cheese rather than spread on bread.