Damson Tart
INGREDIENTS for small tart. 1½ pint of damsons, lb. of moist sugar, ½ lb. of short or puff crust.
AVERAGE COST, 10d.
Put the damsons, with the sugar between them, into a deep pie-dish, in the midst of which place a small cup or jar turned upside down; pile the fruit high in the middle, line the edges of the dish with short or puff crust, whichever may be preferred; put on the cover, ornament the DAMSONS, PRESERVED. edges, and bake from to hour in a good oven. If puff-crust is used, about 10 minutes before the pie is done take it out of the oven, brush it over with the white of an egg beaten to a froth with the blade of a knife; strew some sifted sugar over, and a few drops of water, and put the tart back to finish baking: with short crust, a little plain sifted sugar, sprinkled over, is all that will be required.
TIME. to hour.
SEASONABLE in September and October.
Damsons, Baked (for Winter Use). --INGREDIENTS.-To every lb. of fruit allow 6 oz. of pounded sugar; melted mutton suet.
Choose sound fruit, not too ripe; pick off the stalks, weigh it, and to every lb. allow the above proportion of pounded sugar.
Put the fruit into large dry stone jars, sprinkling the sugar amongst it; cover the jars with saucers, place them in a rather cool oven, and bake the fruit until it is quite tender. When cold, cover the top of the fruit with a piece of white paper cut to the size of the jar; pour over this melted mutton suet about an inch thick, and cover the tops of the jars with thick brown paper well tied down. Keep the jars in a cool dry place, and the fruit will remain good till the following Christmas, but not much longer.
TIME. From 5 to 6 hours to bake the damsons in a very cool oven.
SEASONABLE in September and October.
Damsons, Compôte of. - INGREDIENTS for dish for 4 or 5 persons.-1 quart of damsons, 1 pint of syrup (see SYRUP).
AVERAGE COST, 9d.
Procure sound ripe damsons, pick the stalks from them, and put them into boiling syrup made by the recipe. Simmer them gently until the fruit is tender, but not sufficiently soft to break; take them up, boil the syrup for 5 minutes, pour it over the damsons, and serve. This should be sent to table in a glass dish.
TIME.-About hour to simmer the damsons; 5 minutes to boil the syrup. SEASONABLE in September and October.
A plain covered fruit pie of the sort Mrs Beeton assumed every household could turn out in autumn. Damsons are small, very tart and full of clinging stones, and the recipe's method is built around both facts.
- The quantities have gapsThe sugar weight, the pastry weight (printed nonsensically as '1/24 lb.') and the baking time have all come out incomplete in this text, and Beeton's own figures cannot be recovered from it. For a deep dish holding a pint of damsons, something in the region of 4-8 oz sugar and about 8 oz of pastry for the lid and edge lining, baked 35-45 minutes, is a modern reconstruction rather than the original.
- A good ovenGenerally taken to mean a fairly brisk one, roughly 200C (400F), though Beeton gives no temperatures and any modern equivalent is approximate. The pastry needs the heat to set before the fruit juices soak it.
- The upended cupThe small cup or jar inverted in the centre supports the crust so it does not sink onto the fruit, and it collects juice underneath. A pie funnel or a small ovenproof ramekin does the same job.
- StonesDamsons are cooked whole here, stones and all, which is traditional but means warning anyone at the table. Stoning raw damsons is slow work; halving and pitting them after a brief poach is easier if you want a stone-free tart.
- SugarDamsons are markedly more acid than dessert plums, so do not reduce the sugar on the assumption that old recipes over-sweeten. Taste a raw one first and adjust upward if needed.
- The egg-white glazeBeaten white, sifted sugar and a few drops of water, applied ten minutes before the end, gives a crisp frosted top on puff pastry. Watch it in the last minutes, as the sugar catches quickly at this heat.
- YieldBeeton calls it a small tart and gives no number of servings; a pint of damsons in a deep dish would be about four helpings.
- The baked damsons that followThe winter-keeping method appended to this entry, in which fruit is baked in stone jars and sealed under an inch of melted mutton suet, is not a safe way to store fruit today. Suet-and-paper seals do not exclude spoilage organisms reliably; use current bottling or freezing guidance instead.
The damson takes its name from Damascus, and the small blue-black plum of English hedgerows and cottage gardens, Prunus insititia, has long been distinguished from the softer eating plums by its sharpness and its refusal to be eaten raw with much pleasure. That acidity is exactly what makes it a good pie fruit: it holds its shape, it does not turn to sweet mush, and it produces a dark juice that sets almost to a jelly. Beeton's dating of the recipe to September and October reflects a genuinely short season, which is why so many nineteenth-century damson entries are about preserving, bottling and cheese-making rather than fresh cookery. The inverted cup in the middle of the dish is a piece of practical kitchen furniture that does the work of a purpose-made ceramic pie funnel for nothing.