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Dessert

Damsons, Pickled

Pickled damsons made with sugar, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Damsons, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the damsons and place them in a large pot.

  2. In a separate pot, combine the sugar, cloves, mace, ginger, peppercorns, allspice, and vinegar.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the damsons in the pot.

  2. Allow to cool, then cover and store in jars.

  3. Let the pickles sit for at least one month before using.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 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

Damsons
Provide the fruit that is softened and flavoured by the spiced vinegar syrup.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit in the syrup.
Malt vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the fruit and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar fully before pouring. Stirring until the sugar dissolves in the boiling vinegar ensures an even, fully sweetened syrup. Undissolved sugar can leave grains and uneven sweetness, and the syrup must be hot enough to coat the fruit evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, ginger, allspice, malt, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, ginger, allspice, malt, vinegar. 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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