Prune de Damas

High pectin plus high acid sets without help; the sugar is only there to be edible.

Juniper resin and skin tannin bind; three months in a jar and the spirit turns purple.

Boiled to a solid paste, the acid slices a mature cheese the way chutney cannot.

Astringency scrapes fat clean, and the skin bitterness stops the plate going sweet.

Kernel benzaldehyde is the missing round note in a fruit that is all corners.

Warm phenols make a very sharp preserve read as though it took more sugar.

Iron-heavy lean meat and inky tannin; the sauce works like a young red wine.

Same resin that makes the gin work, applied dry to the pan instead of the jar.

Lactic chalk needs an acid loud enough to be heard over it. This one is.

Drop a leaf in the jam pot; eucalyptol gives the sourness a savoury spine.

Roast malt bitterness meets skin tannin and the two read as one long finish.

Both astringent before they are sweet. Cocoa makes the fruit taste older.