Is it a damson or a sloe?

thriftlady_2

I'm planning a huge batch of Delia's Spiced Damson Chutney this year -it's the best chutney recipe ever and improves with age. I'm also going to do a couple of bottles of damson gin and cook some down with sugar for puree. I love damson puree stirred into yogurt or fool.

linlin_3

Ok foodlovers. What's the secret? How the heck can you stone all those damsons? It must take forever.....

Please could I have the receipe for Delia's Spiced Damson Chutney and a foolproof jam? My garden is dripping with damsons!

thriftlady_2

It does take forever:) some things just take a long time. You don't need to stone them for gin, jelly or puree though. You need to rub the cooked damsons through a sieve for puree

Here's the chutney recipe http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/spiced-damson-chutney,1652,RC.html

I notice Delia gives 2 methods for stoning the damsons, but honestly it isn't a taxing task and it's time usefully spent.

frugalsar

can anyone tell me how I know the damsons are ready to pick, mine seem very firm at the moment but the birds have started picking at them now so I dont want to leave it too long or i'll have none left!

Penelope_Penguin

linlin wrote: »

Ok foodlovers. What's the secret? How the heck can you stone all those damsons? It must take forever.....

Please could I have the receipe for Delia's Spiced Damson Chutney and a foolproof jam? My garden is dripping with damsons!

If I'm making jam or chutney I cook the fruit in water. They then give up their stones, and I fish them out.

If I'm amking a pie, I just leave the stones in. We then play *tinker, tailor* with the stones

Penny. x

Penelope_Penguin

frugalsar wrote: »

can anyone tell me how I know the damsons are ready to pick, mine seem very firm at the moment but the birds have started picking at them now so I dont want to leave it too long or i'll have none left!

They're probably ready, then, if the birds are eating them. Mine are.

Penny. x

frugalsar

off to pick them now then! thanks, also I would love a SIMPLE damson jam recipie (after my dismal attempt last year!)

kethry

just made a batch of this, using 2 and a half pounds of damsons that i picked up in the market yesterday. i first tasted it after i'd tipped the sugar in (so it was at the syrup stage) and even then i was like .. OMMGGG.. my OH came in at that point and went.. "that good is it?" i just dipped the spoon back in and handed it to him silently. he tasted, then went.. "OMG, you're right". and i set to boiling with a vengenance. Neither of us have ever had them before. Got 1 large jam jar and 4 and a half little ones out of that. Looking forward to making 2 different types of plum jam tomorrow (got 3 pounds of golden plums and 3 pounds of dark red plums also yesterday). And i'm sorely tempted to go back to the market on monday to get some more damsons.

Anyway, to the person who was after a recipe for them: put 2 and a half pounds of damsons in a large pan (I used my pressure cooker) with 1 and a quarter pints of cold water. Bring to the boil then simmer till mushy (which was not very long at all - i just pushed a damson with the back of a wooden spoon to see if it would go to mush), then drain into a large bowl through a sieve. You're supposed to NOT use a metal sieve for this but i used a metal one and didn't have any problems. (oops.) anyway, i mushed the gloop around in the sieve, pushing as much pulp through the sieve as i could for about 10/20 minutes (hard work, that part), then tossed the stones/gloop and put as much of the dark red pulp as i could scrape off the bottom of the sieve (the underside) back into the liquid as possible.

the recipe then told me to measure out the liquid/pulp - for every 500ml of liquid, i was to measure out 1 and a quarter pounds of sugar. I ended up with just over 1200ml of liquid/pulp, so measured out about 2 and three quarter pounds of sugar, put all of it back in the pressure cooker and started to reheat it slowly. I also had glass jars drying in the oven already (i just washed them in hot soapy water then put them in the oven for 10 minutes on gas mark 3, then switched the oven off but kept the door closed till i was ready to bottle). once the sugar had dissolved (i.e. you couldn't feel the grittiness when you scraped the wooden spoon along the bottom of the pan, or see it on the back of the spoon) i turned the heat up to bring it to the boil, then had it as high as i dared on a rolling boil. Be warned: its like milk, it does froth up so you must keep an eye on it in order to turn the heat down if it threatens to boil over. I found that 2 and a half pounds of damsons was just enough - any more and i would've boiled over.

I let that boil for 10 minutes, then did the wrinkle test (keep some saucers in the freezer, after 10 minutes, bring one out, spoon some jam onto the saucer, leave it a minute or so to cool, then push it with your finger, if it wrinkles and doesn't fill in the "groove" made by your finger, then its ready. if it doesn't wrinkle and fills back in quickly, then its not ready. spoon it back into the pan and boil for 5 minutes more). I did the wrinkle test every 5 minutes, but ended up boiling for nearly 30 minutes - i think perhaps because i wasn't able to have the heat up very high. it was boiling, but only just. Once it was ready, i left it for 5 minutes for the fruit to settle, then spooned it into the hot jars, put the lid ontop straight way to seal, then went and did the washing up.

the hardest part was not eating it all there and then!! (and i have a batch of bread rising.. i forsee both OH and myself pigging out big time on jam and bread later..)

HTH!!

keth
xx

p.s. anyone got any ideas on what i can do with half a pound of leftover damsons, if i don't go to get some more (to make more jam) that is?

p.p.s: to anyone making this - we both tried the jam last night. While i found it lovely, OH found it a bit too sweet, and thinking about it, there's more sugar in this than the recommendation on the "plum jam" thread, so there's obviously scope to reduce the sugar some. If anyone making this has a less than sweet tooth then they may want to reduce the sugar content from what i listed.