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Dessert

Damson Plum Conserve

A sweet preserve made from damson plums, citrus, raisins, currants, sugar, and pecan nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Damson Plum Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat from the plum seeds to make 4 cups.

  2. Place the lemon, orange, and cold water in a kettle and boil slowly until the rind is tender and the water is nearly boiled away.

Cook the preserve

  1. Combine the boiled mixture, plums, raisins, currants, and sugar in the kettle.

  2. Cook slowly over low heat until the mixture thickens and the plums are tender.

  3. If the conserve seems thick, add additional water as needed.

  4. About 3 minutes before canning in airtight jars, add the nut meats.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Plum + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Plum + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Damson plums
Provide the main fruit body and pulp that cooks down into the thick preserve.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps it thicken and keep as it cooks.
Lemon
Adds acidity and brightness and contributes pectin-rich rind to help set the preserve.
Orange
Adds acidity and citrus aroma, with rind that softens during the initial boil.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the finished preserve.

The step that matters

Adding the nut meats near the end. Pecans added too early soften and lose their crunch in the hot syrup, so they are stirred in only about 3 minutes before canning.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, lemon, orange, raisin, sugar, meat):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, lemon, orange, raisin, sugar, meat. 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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