Damson Jam
INGREDIENTS, 1½ pint of damsons to each lb. pot. -Damsons ; to every lb. of fruit allow lb. of loaf sugar.
AVERAGE COST, 6d. per pot.
Have the fruit gathered in dry weather, pick it over, and reject any that is at all blemished. Stone the damsons, weigh them, and to every lb. allow lb. of loaf sugar. Put the fruit and sugar into a preserving-pan; keep stirring them gently until the sugar is dissolved, and carefully remove the scum as it rises. Boil the jam for about an hour, reckoning from the time it commences to simmer all over alike; it must be well stirred all the time, or it will be liable to burn and stick to the pan, which will cause the jam to have a very disagreeable flavour. When the jam looks firm, and the juice appears to set, it is done; then take it DAMSONS. off the fire, put it into pots, cover it down, when quite cold, with oiled and egged papers, and store it away in a dry place.
TIME.-1 hour after the jam simmers all over.
SEASONABLE. Make this in September or October.
A high-pectin, high-acid fruit that needs less help than most to set. The chief obstacles here are the fractions that dropped out of the printed text and a boiling time far longer than modern practice.
- The missing sugar fractionThe quantity per pot was checked against the printed page and reads 1½ pint of damsons to each lb pot. The sugar line has still lost its fraction, printing only "lb. of loaf sugar" to every lb of fruit; allow about ¾ lb of loaf sugar to each 1 lb of stoned damsons.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined white sugar broken from a cone, prized because it threw less scum. Ordinary granulated or preserving sugar is the same thing for this purpose; preserving sugar's larger crystals dissolve more evenly and reduce stirring.
- Boil for the set, not the hourAn hour at a full boil will give you a dark, caramel-flavoured paste. Damsons are among the highest-pectin fruits in the British kitchen; once the sugar has dissolved and the pan is at a rolling boil, expect a set in 20 to 40 minutes. Test on a chilled saucer, or take it off at 105C/220F.
- StoningStoning raw damsons is slow and wasteful because the flesh clings. A common alternative is to simmer the whole fruit in a little water until it softens, then lift the stones out with a slotted spoon as they float free, and weigh the pulp before adding sugar. Counting the stones out is worth the trouble; a stray one cracks a tooth.
- Preserving-panA wide, heavy, unlined copper or a wide stainless maslin pan. Width matters more than depth: it drives off water fast and shortens the boil. A tall narrow pot will make the hour-long boil the recipe warns about almost inevitable.
- Sealing"Oiled and egged papers" means a disc of oiled paper laid on the surface of the cold jam, then a sheet brushed with egg white stretched over the rim, which dried tight as it shrank. It works, but it is not an airtight seal and mould was normal. Use hot sterilised jars with lacquered metal lids, filled hot and sealed at once.
- YieldAbout 4 lb of stoned fruit with ¾ lb sugar per pound starts at roughly 7 lb in the pan and, after boiling down, gives something in the region of five to six 1 lb jars. The lower sugar ratio means a slightly shorter keeping life than a 1:1 jam once opened; refrigerate after opening.
- SeasonSeptember and October still holds. Damsons picked slightly underripe carry more pectin and acid. The old books' insistence on dry-gathered, unblemished fruit is a separate concern: surface water and bruising invite mould in the pot.
The damson takes its name from Damascus — it appears in medieval English records as the damascene or damson plum, and the association with Syria is traditional rather than documented as a route of introduction. In Victorian Britain it was less an orchard crop than a hedgerow and field-boundary tree, especially in Westmorland, Shropshire and the Vale of Evesham, where damson hedges were planted as windbreaks and the fruit sold to jam factories and, by tradition, to dyers, who are often said to have used it for a blue-purple. Sharp and astringent unless fully ripe, it is almost purpose-built for preserving, which is why a book like Beeton's gives it as a jam fruit alongside damson tart, damson pudding and damson cheese. The stated cost of sixpence a pot is in line with other Beeton jams, costed at 6d to 8d a pot, and September jam-making was a fixed point in the domestic year for anyone with access to a tree.