Damson Cheese
INGREDIENTS, 1½ pint of damsons to each pot. -Damsons to every lb. of fruit pulp allow 1/24 lb. of loaf sugar. AVERAGE COST, 10d. per small pot.
Pick the stalks from the damsons, and put them into a preserving-pan; simmer them over the fire until they are soft, occasionally stirring them; then beat them through a coarse sieve, and put the pulp and juice into the preserving-pan, with sugar in the above proportion, having previously carefully weighed them. Stir the sugar well in, and simmer the damsons slowly for 2 hours. Skim well, then boil the preserve quickly for 1/2 hour, or until it looks firm and hard in the spoon; put it quickly into shallow pots, or very tiny earthenware moulds, and when cold, cover it, with oiled papers, and the jars with tissue-paper brushed over on both sides with the white of an egg. A few of the stones may be cracked, and the kernels boiled with the damsons, which very much improves the flavour of the cheese.
TIME.-1 hour to boil the damsons without the sugar; 2 hours to simmer them slowly, 1/2 hour quickly.
SEASONABLE. Make this in September or October.
DAMSON JAM.
A damson cheese is a fruit paste boiled far past jam stage until it will turn out of its mould and slice. The instructions are sound; the ingredient line is where the trouble lies.
- The sugar proportionThe printed ratio, "1/24 lb. of loaf sugar" to each pound of pulp, is barely two-thirds of an ounce and cannot be what was intended; it looks like a corrupted fraction. Damson cheese is generally made with somewhere between half a pound and a pound of sugar per pound of sieved pulp, and that is the range to work in. Loaf sugar is simply refined white sugar; granulated is the direct replacement.
- Pulp, not fruit, is what you weighWeigh after sieving. Damsons are heavily stoned and a fair amount of skin and stone is discarded, so the pulp will come to well under the weight of fruit you started with.
- SievingA coarse sieve and a wooden spoon still works, but a food mill with the medium plate does the same job in a fraction of the time and keeps the stones back. Do not use a blender, which will chop skins into the pulp and dull the colour.
- Cheese, not jamThe long slow simmer followed by a hard fast boil is what separates cheese from jam. Stir constantly once it thickens, using a long spoon and a deep pan: reduced fruit purée spits, and it will catch and scorch on the base in seconds.
- Judging the finish"Firm and hard in the spoon" means the paste holds a clean channel when you draw the spoon across the pan bottom and does not flow back. Timings will vary with pan width and fruit ripeness; the visual test governs, not the half hour.
- The kernelsDamson and plum kernels contain amygdalin, which on breakdown yields both the almond flavour of bitter almonds and small amounts of cyanide. Some cooks now leave them out; if you do, the cheese loses a faint marzipan note and nothing else.
- Potting and keepingOiled papers and egg-glazed tissue were the Victorian seal. Use sterilised jars with proper lids, or line small moulds or ramekins with cling film if you want a turned-out cheese. Even at this sugar concentration, store in the refrigerator once opened.
- ServingTraditionally turned out whole and sliced to eat with cold game, mutton or hard cheese, rather than spread on bread. It improves after several months in a cool dark cupboard.
Fruit "cheeses" take their name from their form rather than any dairy content: the paste was boiled until stiff enough to be potted in a shallow mould, turned out as a round, and cut in slices like a cheese. Damson, quince and apple were the usual fruits, quince cheese being essentially the same preparation as Spanish membrillo and related to the English medieval chardequince. The damson, generally traced to Damascus by way of its name, was a hedgerow and orchard staple across the English Midlands and the north, too sharp and stony for eating out of hand but unrivalled for preserving, and September and October gluts had to be dealt with quickly. The recipe's estimate of tenpence per small pot and the instruction to seal with tissue brushed with egg white both belong to a household economy in which preserving was a scheduled autumn task and the finished cheese was expected to keep in the store cupboard until wanted.