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Preserve, Damson

A preserve made from damson plums and sugar, cooked until thickened and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,313 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Preserve, Damson

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the damson plums and remove any stems.

  2. In a large pot, combine the plums and sugar.

Cook

  1. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens.

Jar and process

  1. Pour the hot preserve into sterilized jars, leaving some space at the top.

  2. Seal the jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Damson plums
Provide the fruit, pectin and tartness that form the preserve's body and flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps thicken the preserve while preserving it against spoilage.

The step that matters

Cooking until the mixture thickens. Sugar and fruit pectin must be concentrated by simmering long enough to set. Stopping early leaves a runny preserve that may spoil, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavor.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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