The Larder — Michaelmas

The Larder

Three Small Provisions for the Turn of the Year.

Recipes, preserves, and standing provisions from the cottage kitchen. Written for the cook who is slightly tired, and who does not own a thermometer.

i.

Pickled Damsons, Mrs. Eldon's Way

Makes three one-pound jars. Wants eight weeks before it is any good; six months before it is proper.

You will want

  • 2 lb damsons, unblemished, stalks removed
  • 1 lb demerara sugar
  • 1 pint cider vinegar (not malt — she was firm)
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 6 cloves
  • a strip of lemon peel, no pith
  • a small muslin square, clean

Use the small, dark variety if you can get them. The large "sweet damson" at market is in fact a plum wearing a better coat.

Method

  1. Prick each damson twice with a darning needle. This is tedious and essential; do it listening to something you have heard before.
  2. Warm the sugar and vinegar together until dissolved — not boiling. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and peel tied loosely in the muslin.
  3. Add the damsons. Bring to a murmur (not a boil) for seven minutes, until the skins just begin to go. Any longer and you have jam.
  4. Lift the fruit into warmed, sterile jars with a slotted spoon. Reduce the liquor by a third, then pour over the fruit to cover. Seal.
  5. Put them somewhere dark and largely forgotten. Label them; you will not remember the date, and neither will Hobbes.

Serves: cold meats, mild cheeses, a ham on Boxing Day, a dull Tuesday.

ii.

A Brown-Butter Loaf for Tired Evenings

One loaf tin, one bowl, thirty-five minutes. Keeps three days, if it keeps at all.

You will want

  • 150 g unsalted butter
  • 200 g light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 200 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp fine salt
  • 100 ml whole milk
  • a handful of walnuts, if you have them; do not buy them especially

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Keep going, past melted, until it smells of toffee and hazelnuts and the solids at the bottom are the colour of strong tea. This is the point of the loaf.
  2. Pour the brown butter, solids and all, into a mixing bowl. Let it cool to warm.
  3. Whisk in the sugar, then the eggs, then the milk. Fold in the dry. Fold in the walnuts.
  4. Into a buttered loaf tin. 180 °C for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out with one or two moist crumbs (not wet).
  5. Cool in the tin ten minutes; turn out. Eat a thick slice standing up. Regret nothing.

iii.

Herb Salt for the Everyday Jar

A standing provision. Kept in a small jar by the stove. Takes four minutes.

You will want

  • 4 Tbsp flaky sea salt
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp lemon zest, dried overnight on a saucer
  • a single bay leaf, crumbled small

Method

  1. Combine in a small bowl with a fork. Press a little between finger and thumb to bruise the leaves into the salt.
  2. Into a small jar with a good lid. Label it — you will convince yourself you know which jar, and you will not.
  3. Use on tomatoes, on roast potatoes, on the edge of a plate of soft-boiled eggs, on the rim of a glass of something stronger than you meant.

Keeps three months before the bay goes flat. Make it twice a year; more if there are guests.

A note on measurements: the editor was trained in pounds and ounces and has, in late life, been dragged by his niece into metric. The recipes above give whichever set he remembered when writing; the larder has never once suffered for the inconsistency.