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Dessert

Damson Jam

A jam made from plums and sugar, cooked until thick and poured into hot jelly glasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and plum 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 ↓

Damson Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash the plums, remove the stones, and weigh them.

Cook the jam

  1. Layer the plums and sugar in a saucepan, allowing them to stand until some juice is extracted or add a small amount of water to moisten the bottom.

  2. Heat gradually to boiling, then boil gently, stirring frequently until the fruit loses its shape and the juice thickens to a molasses consistency.

Pot and set

  1. Pour the mixture into hot jelly glasses and cover once completely cool.

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. Sugar + plumtop 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

Plums
Provide the fruit, pectin and acid that give the jam its body and flavour.
Sugar
Draws out juice and thickens the jam while preserving it and adding sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil gently while stirring frequently. Sugar and fruit can scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred, and the jam must reach a thick, molasses-like consistency to set properly once cooled.

“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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