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Dessert

Damson Jam

A jam made from plums and sugar, simmered until thick.

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 ↓

Damson Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. Layer the plums and sugar alternately in a saucepan.

  3. Let them sit until some juice is extracted, or add a small amount of water to moisten the bottom of the pan.

Cook and jar

  1. Heat gradually to boiling, then boil gently, stirring frequently, until the fruit breaks down and the juice thickens to a molasses consistency.

  2. 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. 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

Plums
Provide the fruit body and pectin that set the jam as it breaks down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the juice into a jam-like consistency.

The step that matters

Boil gently while stirring frequently. Stirring keeps the sugar and fruit from scorching on the bottom of the pan, and a gentle boil lets the juice thicken without burning. Cooking until the juice reaches a molasses consistency is what makes the jam set once cool.

“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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