Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Damson. Wine.— Get sound ripe fruit, reject all that is stale and mouldy ; pick off the stalks, and to four gallons of damsons add four gallons of boiling water. Let them soak four or five days, stirring them regularly every day with the hand. Add to every gallon of liquor three and a half pounds of good lump sugar, and when this is quite dissolved, put the whole into a cask with one quart of spirits to every three gallons. Put it into a cask and let it remain twelve months, when it may be bottled for use. Damsons Baked for Keeping.— Fill some large stone jars with not over-ripe damsons — none of them must be crushed — and add to them half their weight in pounded sugar. Put the fruit and sugar in layers into the jars. Let the oven get cool, and place the jars, well covered over the top with small flat slate stones, into it. When they have baked from five to six hours they will be done, and should be removed at once to get cold. The top should be first covered with a round of white paper, then melted mutton suet to about one inch in thickness, and lastly, a piece of brown paper or bladder so secured as to exclude the air. If kept in a dry, well-ventilated room, damsons so prepared will keep good for three months. Damsons, Bottled. — Bullaces or damsons are valuable for winter use, and, bottled like green gooseberries, make good tarts. Put them into wide-necked glass bottles, tie the tops over with bladder, and set them in a boiler of cold water, with a little straw at the bottom. Bring the water to the boil, and then remove the boiler from the fire, but let the bottles remain to become cold. In a few hours, or better, the next day, remove the bladder, and replace it by tight-fitting corks, first filling the bottles with pounded sugar. The corks should be secured with wax. Damson, Compote of.— Make a pint of syrup in the following manner : — Take one pound of loaf sugar and one pint of water ; let it simmer on the fire until the sugar has melted, then throw in the white of an egg, and take off the scum as it rises. When the syrup has boiled fifteen minutes, drop into it, one by one, a quart of sound damsons, and simmer until soft. COMPOTE OF DAMSONS. without breaking them. Remove them from the syrup, and boil it again until rather thick, let it cool, and jpour it over the damsons which should have been previously arranged in a glass dish. A glass of whipped cream is a nice accompaniment to this dish. Time to boil, syrup, fifteen minutes; damsons, about five minutes. Probable cost, without cream, 1s. Sufiicient for four or five persons. Damsons, Compote of (another way). This compote will require less sugar, because the fruit is of a less acid nature than some of the other varieties of plums. Allow four o'rnces of sugar to half a pint of water, boil the usual time, and simmer the fruit in the syrup ten or twelve minutes. The quantity of syrup is for one pound of damsons. Time, ten to fifteen minutes to stew the damsons. Damsons, Preserved. — Gather the