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Green Gages Preserved in Syrup

Preserved green gages in clarified sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,147 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Green Gages Preserved in Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gages

  1. Cut the stalks of the gages about ½ inch from the fruit.

  2. Soak the gages in cold water with the alum.

  3. Heat the gages on a slow fire until they simmer, then remove them from heat.

  4. Place the gages in cold water, then drain them.

  5. Pack the gages tightly into a preserving pan.

Make the syrup and steep

  1. Pour enough clarified sugar over the gages to cover them.

  2. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Set the gages aside in an earthen pan until the next day.

  4. Drain the gages.

  5. Boil the syrup with more sugar until thick.

  6. Add the gages back to the syrup.

  7. Simmer for 3 minutes.

  8. Repeat this process for two days.

Jar and cover

  1. Boil clarified sugar to a blow.

  2. Place the gages in jars.

  3. Pour the syrup over the gages.

  4. When cold, cover with a cloth.

  5. Cover with leather.

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. Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,147 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green gages
The main fruit, which firms and sweetens as it absorbs the syrup over repeated soakings.
Clarified sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out its water, which helps preserve it.
Alum
Helps the fruit skins stay firm during the soaking and cooking.

The step that matters

Repeat the syrup simmering over two days. Short simmers with rest periods let sugar move into the fruit gradually. Cooking too hard or too long at once can split the skins and break the gages apart.

“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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