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Pickled Damson Plums

Plums preserved in a boiled vinegar and spice syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Pickled Damson Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine vinegar and spices in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the plums and sugar in a jar.

Seal and heat

  1. Seal the jar tightly.

  2. Heat the syrup for five consecutive days.

Finish

  1. On the sixth day, bring the plums, spices, and syrup to a boil.

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. Plum + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Plum + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together446 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 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

Damson plums
Provide the fruit that softens and absorbs the syrup and spice flavours during preserving.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, at high concentration, helps preserve the fruit by drawing out water.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp flavour and helps prevent spoilage.
Mace
Adds a warm, delicate aroma to the syrup and fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that flavours the syrup and fruit.
Cloves
Adds a strong, pungent aroma that flavours the syrup and fruit.

The step that matters

Heat the syrup for five consecutive days. Repeated heating over several days helps kill microorganisms and lets the syrup, sugar and vinegar work together to preserve the fruit. Skipping days may leave the pickle less stable.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove. 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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