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Damson Pickle

A pickle made by steeping damsons with spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Damson Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the spices finely and layer them in a jar with the fruit.

  2. Boil the vinegar with the brown sugar until dissolved.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar and sugar mixture over the fruit and spices.

  4. Scald the vinegar mixture for four consecutive days.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Cinnamon + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Damsons
The fruit that is preserved and flavoured by the spiced vinegar and sugar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens the pickle and helps preserve the fruit.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the pickle and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the pickle.
Cloves
Adds strong, warm aroma and spice flavour to the pickle.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm spice aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Scald the vinegar mixture for four consecutive days. Repeated scalding over consecutive days gently heats the fruit and spreads the spice flavour through it, while the acid and sugar work to preserve it. Skipping days or shortening the process weakens this effect.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, celery, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, celery, sugar, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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