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DAMSON CHEESE (another way)
Select ripe, sound fruit. Put the damsons into a large stone jar, and allow a quarter of a pound of sugar to every quart of fruit. Set the jar up to its neck in a pot of boiling water, or place it in a very cool oven till the fruit is tender; then remove the stones with a fork, and boil all together in a preserving-pan till it is a thick pulp. Add half a pound of pounded loaf sugar to each pound of fruit, and boil it again until it leaves the pan quite dry, and is a thick mass. Be careful to stir always or it will burn. Put it into moulds with a brandied paper over the top. Tie down, and store in a dry place. Time, two hours and a half to boil. Probable cost, 8d. to 10d. per small pot. Sufficient, one pint for, a very small pot.
A fruit paste, not a dairy cheese: damsons cooked with sugar until stiff enough to turn out of a mould and slice. The whole recipe hinges on cooking it far drier than seems reasonable.
- "Cheese" means a sliceable pasteDamson cheese sets firm enough to cut with a knife, like membrillo. If it is still spoonable when you pot it, it has not been boiled long enough.
- The two-stage sugarThe first quarter-pound per quart of fruit only helps draw juice during the gentle softening. The real preserving sugar is the second addition, half a pound per pound of stoned pulp. Loaf sugar was refined cane sugar sold in a hard cone and pounded before use; modern granulated white sugar is the nearest practical substitute.
- "A very cool oven"About 225-250F, or use the water-bath method as given. The point is to soften the fruit and loosen the stones without browning or catching.
- VesselsA stone jar set to its neck in boiling water is a bain-marie; a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water does the same. For the second boiling use the widest heavy pan you have, since evaporation is the whole job. Do not use unlined copper or aluminium with this much acid.
- The stonesFishing out stones with a fork is slow but keeps the skins, which contribute much of the colour. Damsons do not free-stone; expect to work through the pulp patiently rather than halving the fruit.
- Stirring and donenessOnce the sugar is in, the paste spits and scorches easily; stir constantly with a long-handled wooden spoon and keep the heat moderate. It is ready when the spoon leaves a clean track that does not flood back and the mass pulls away from the pan sides in a single sheet. That can take well under the stated two and a half hours in a wide modern pan.
- Moulds and the brandied paperSmall straight-sided pots, ramekins or a parchment-lined tin all work; lightly oil or line them so the set paste turns out. A paper wetted with brandy laid directly on the surface was the period seal, and alcohol does discourage surface mould, but a paste this dry keeps more reliably wrapped in parchment in the refrigerator.
- Yield and servingThe recipe reckons one pint of fruit to a very small pot. Traditionally served in thin slices with cheese, cold game or mutton.
Fruit "cheeses" and "butters" were the standard English way of keeping a glut of hard, acid orchard fruit before cheap sugar and reliable jars made soft jam the default: the fruit is boiled with sugar until so little water remains that nothing can grow in it, then moulded like a small round cheese and stored, sometimes for years, on a dry shelf. Damsons, a small dark plum grown widely in English hedgerows and cottage gardens, were the classic subject because they are too tart and too stone-bound to eat raw in quantity but give an intense colour and a firm set. Cassell's includes it among a run of alternate methods, and notes the probable cost per pot, 8d. to 10d. Damson cheese was eaten in slices with cold meat or with a hard cheese, a pairing that survives today in quince paste.