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Dessert

Damson Jelly

A sweet preserve made from damson syrup, sugar, lemon juice, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Damson Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in the water.

  2. Add the lump sugar, damson syrup and lemon juice.

  3. Bring to a boil, then strain through muslin.

Set and flavor

  1. When nearly cold, pour into moulds.

  2. For improved flavor, add thinly pared lemon rind boiled in syrup.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, tender jelly as it cools.
Damson syrup
Provides the main fruit flavor and color of the jelly.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the fruit.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

When nearly cold, pour into moulds.. Isinglass sets as the liquid cools, so timing matters. Pour when the mixture is nearly cold but still fluid. If it is too hot, the jelly may set poorly; if it is left too long, it may set in the pan before it can be poured evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. 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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