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Dessert

Gooseberry Conserve

A preserve made from gooseberries, oranges, raisins, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,684 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Gooseberry Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Squeeze juice from the oranges.

  2. Grind the rind of the oranges using a meat grinder.

Cook

  1. Mix all ingredients together.

  2. Boil for 20 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. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Gooseberries
Main fruit that gives the conserve its body, tartness and natural pectin for setting.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as water evaporates during boiling, helps the mixture thicken and set.
Oranges
Juice adds acidity and the rind adds pectin and a bright citrus aroma.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and moisture to the finished conserve.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes. As water evaporates, the sugar and fruit pectin concentrate and set the mixture. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while too long can make it stiff and darker.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar. 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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