Damson Pie
Scald the damsons slightly, in just enough water to prevent burning. Set aside till cool enough to handle. Remove the stones, sweeten well, and put in a deep pie-plate, lined with paste. Dredge with a little flour, cover with a top crust, and bake.-Mrs. T.
A bare-bones fruit pie of the sort written for cooks who already knew what a pie looked like. Almost everything unstated — sugar, oven, time — has to be supplied.
- DamsonsA small, oval, blue-black plum, very tart and clingstone, sold in late summer and early autumn where it is grown at all. Italian prune plums are the closest common substitute; add a little lemon juice, since they are sweeter and less astringent.
- The scald is for the stonesDamsons cling hard to their pits raw. A brief dip in barely enough water to keep the pan from scorching — two or three minutes, until the skins slacken — is what makes them strip cleanly. Do not cook them to a pulp at this stage.
- "Sweeten well"No quantity is given. For about 2 lb of stoned damsons, 1 to 1¼ cups of sugar is a starting point; taste the fruit, as damsons are markedly tart and may want more, and underdoing it produces a mouth-puckering pie.
- The flour dredgeThe only thickener; the recipe asks for "a little flour" dredged over the fruit. Three to four tablespoons tossed with the sweetened fruit, or scattered over it in the shell, is a modern amount for the very free juice damsons throw.
- Deep pie-plateA period deep plate is roughly a modern 9-inch pie dish with sloping sides, holding about 5 cups. Fill it generously; the fruit sinks as it cooks.
- OvenNone is given. Start at 425°F for 15 minutes to set the bottom crust, then drop to 350°F for 35 to 45 minutes, until the juice bubbles thickly through the vents.
- Paste"Paste" here means plain pie pastry. Any standard double-crust dough works; cut steam vents, since damsons boil over readily.
- YieldOne 9-inch pie, six to eight servings. Cool at least two hours before cutting or the filling will run.
Damsons take their name from Damascus, the fruit having reached Europe from the eastern Mediterranean in antiquity, and they were among the plums that colonists planted early in Virginia because the trees are hardy, self-fertile and productive with almost no attention. Too sour to eat out of hand, damsons went into preserves, cheeses, cordials and pies, and a household with a damson tree faced a short, heavy glut every year that had to be dealt with quickly. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named housewives, and donors are frequently identified only by an initial, as here with Mrs. T. The brevity is characteristic of the book.