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Damson Jelly
Take the required quantity of fine ripe damsons and one-third of the quantity of bullaces. Put them, after separating the stalks from the fruit, into a large stone jar, first cutting them with a knife as they are put in. Tie down with paper, and place the jar in a moderate oven overnight. When the juice is poured off, strain, weigh, and boil it quickly for twenty-five minutes without sugar; then add ten ounces of sugar to each pound of juice, and boil and skim until the jelly will set. During the whole time of boiling the jelly should be stirred.
A two-stage preserve: the fruit is heated dry overnight to bleed its juice, then the juice is reduced hard before any sugar goes in. The proportions are given by weight of juice, not fruit, so nothing can be scaled until the juice is strained and on the scales.
- The hinge: reduce before sweeteningBoiling the juice twenty-five minutes with no sugar concentrates both flavour and pectin, and it is what makes so little sugar set. Add the sugar early and you will boil far longer to reach setting point, with a duller, more caramelised result.
- BullacesA small wild or semi-wild plum, sharper and more astringent than the damson, still occasionally found in hedgerows and at farm markets but not in supermarkets. Substitute an equal weight of slightly underripe damsons, or another tart plum picked before full ripeness; the point is acidity and pectin, not sweetness.
- "A moderate oven overnight"'Moderate oven' normally indicates something near 350F, but an overnight standing implies the falling heat of a range after the day's cooking rather than a steady moderate heat. In a modern oven use the lowest setting, around 200F, with the fruit in a deep covered casserole or ovenproof bowl; check after four hours, as an electric oven holds its heat far more steadily than a banked fire.
- The stone jarA glazed earthenware crock, used because it heats slowly and evenly and will not react with fruit acid. Any deep ovenproof dish with a lid works; the tied paper kept out dust and ash and slowed evaporation, and a lid or foil will serve. Avoid bare aluminium or unlined copper.
- Sugar ratioTen ounces per pound of juice is about 62 percent of the weight of the juice, less than the pound-for-pound proportion many modern recipes use. Damsons are high in pectin and acid, so it sets; as with any preserve, refrigerate once opened.
- Judging the set"Boil and skim until the jelly will set" means the saucer test, or 220F on a thermometer at sea level. Take the pan off the heat while you test, since damson jelly darkens quickly once it passes setting point.
- StirringUnusual for a jelly, and deliberate here: the sugarless reduction is thick and catches easily on the base of the pan. Use a wide heavy pan and a flat-edged wooden spoon or spatula rather than a spoon that rides above the bottom.
- YieldThe recipe specifies no quantities, so any figure is an estimate. As a very rough guide, a pound of fruit may give something under half a pint of juice, and the finished jelly will be less in volume again; four pounds of damsons with a pound and a third of bullaces might fill three or four half-pint jars.
- The stonesThe fruit goes in whole and cut, stones included, and the stones strain out with the pulp. Left uncrushed they contribute nothing but a faint almond note; do not deliberately crack them for flavour.
Damsons and bullaces are the two English hedgerow plums, both descendants of Prunus domestica subsp. insititia, and both were long grown for the preserving trade, with damsons also used as a dye. Neither is at its best raw, which is much of why they dominate Victorian preserve chapters: high acid and high pectin make them the most reliable setting fruit in the British garden, and the damson's dark astringency survives sugar and long boiling in a way a ripe eating plum does not. The overnight jar in a cooling oven is a method built around the coal range, which gave off usable heat for hours after the day's cooking was done, and it produces a clearer, less pulpy juice than boiling with added water. The general rule it teaches is that juice should be weighed and concentrated before sugar enters the pan.