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Preserve

How We Cook in Tennessee

A collection of Tennessee recipes for fruit preserves, orange marmalade, brandied peaches and peach chips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the peach preserve

  1. Use ripe white plum peaches and peel them.

  2. Put a layer of peaches in a stone jar, then a layer of sugar, and so on until the jar is full.

  3. Next morning, mix the syrup and brandy.

  4. Pour the syrup and brandy over the peaches, putting two or three cloves in each peach.

  5. Put a saucer on top to weigh them down and tie the jar up tight.

  6. Set away for several months, excluding all air.

Prepare the cherries and damsons

  1. Seed the cherries carefully.

  2. Weigh them and add a full pound of sugar to every pound of cherries.

  3. Put a layer of sugar and a layer of cherries alternately in the vessel.

  4. Let stand overnight.

  5. Pour into a kettle and boil gently until the fruit is thoroughly tender and the syrup thick.

  6. Wash and seed the damsons.

  7. Scald the damsons until the seeds can be popped out easily.

  8. Start the damsons and water and boil one-half hour before putting in the sugar.

  9. Allow one pound of sugar to every pound of fruit and one pint of water to every four pounds of fruit.

  10. Allow a pound of sugar to each pound of fruit and cook until they look glossy.

  11. Cook until moderately thick.

Make the orange and lemon marmalade

  1. Cut one dozen oranges in thin slices, rejecting the pips.

  2. Put into an earthen jar with ten pints of cold water and let stand twenty-four hours.

  3. Boil steadily for two hours.

  4. Add twelve pounds loaf sugar and boil three-quarters of an hour longer.

  5. Cut three or four lemons in thin slices and put them in just before removing the kettle from the fire.

  6. Stir while cooling, as it helps to mix well.

Make candied peaches

  1. Take ripe peaches, peel them, and cut them from the seed.

  2. Make a thin syrup and boil the peaches in it until they look clear.

  3. Lay them on a sieve to drain.

  4. Roll them in dry brown sugar and expose them to the sun in dishes.

  5. Change to dry dishes and dip in sugar again until entirely dried and crystallized.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

130Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
33 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Fruitnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. See the original page.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, in quantity, draws out moisture and thickens the syrup.
Fruit
Provides the main flavor and body of each preserve.
Oranges
Add bitter peel and pulp flavor and pectin that helps the marmalade set.
Lemons
Add acidity and pectin that brightens flavor and supports setting.

The step that matters

Boiling the damsons and water before adding sugar. Boiling the fruit in water first softens it so sugar added later does not toughen the skins and the pectin can release for a proper set.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, lemon. 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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