Plums

Question

Do "plum butter" and "damson cheese"  refer to the same type of plum preserve?If they do, which of these terms is commoner (on jars in shops etc.)?

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

0UK02br
02br
00Well I had to look them both up on the internet to find out what they were, so you can see from that that neither is exactly common. They sound similar but not exactly the same; the 'butter' is not really a preserve and only keeps for a couple of weeks, whereas the 'cheese' lasts for about 2 months. 02br
02br
00I can honestly say that I have never seen either of these on a shop shelf anywhere. We have lots of jams but I've never seen one called 'butter' or 'cheese' on the shelf. It seems as though these are not preserves in quite the same way, don't last as long, so I imagine they are not suitable for a commercial product. Maybe plums don't preserve well with a 'jammy' method?02br
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00There is a fashion here at the moment for 'farmers markets' where small scale direct producers of food sell directly to the public, and they often have people making and selling traditional foods you can't get in the big shops. So possibly you'll find these at that sort of place, but not in the supermarkets.0-

Pastsimple · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Nona The Brit12cite10UK12br
12br
10Well I had to look them both up on the internet to find out what they were, so you can see from that that neither is exactly common. They sound similar but not exactly the same; the 'butter' is not really a preserve and only keeps for a couple of weeks, whereas the 'cheese' lasts for about 2 months. 12br
12br
10I can honestly say that I have never seen either of these on a shop shelf anywhere. We have lots of jams but I've never seen one called 'butter' or 'cheese' on the shelf. It seems as though these are not preserves in quite the same way, don't last as long, so I imagine they are not suitable for a commercial product. Maybe plums don't preserve well with a 'jammy' method?12br
12br
10There is a fashion here at the moment for 'farmers markets' where small scale direct producers of food sell directly to the public, and they often have people making and selling traditional foods you can't get in the big shops. So possibly you'll find these at that sort of place, but not in the supermarkets.12br
12blockquote

10Where I live, this plum preserve "that's not plum jam" is an extremely common thing. You can buy it in every shop. It's sometimes made from pears as well. I did a search on American Amazon (the gourmet food section) - there were some hits for "plum butter" but none for "damson cheese". Maybe some Yanks do know this food item and use it. 02br
00Well, there is not much use for this preserve except as a topping / filling for cakes. It's very tasty, though.0-

Philip · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Anonymous12cite10Do "plum butter" and "damson cheese" refer to the same type of plum preserve?12br
12br
10If they do, which of these terms is commoner (on jars in shops etc.)?12br
12blockquote

10I attended a summer camp where the common condiment was 01u00apple butter02u00, because it was cheaper than other jams or jellies. A recipe I have for it calls for applesauce, lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and brown sugar. I rather imagine that 01u00plum butter02u00 would be very similar, perhaps starting with plums that had been cooked up and made into a sauce. 01u00Damson02u00 is simply a type of plum, so my guess is that 01u00damson cheese02u00 is very similar to what we're talking about. 0-

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