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Green-gage Plums

Preserved green-gage plums in syrup with vine leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Green-gage Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Select the largest and clearest plums from a peck.

  2. Layer vine leaves and plums in a pan, alternating until full.

  3. Fill the pan with water.

  4. Heat over medium heat until hot.

  5. Skim off any foam.

  6. Pour off the water and cool the plums on a sieve.

  7. Carefully remove the peels.

Green the plums

  1. Place the peeled plums in the heated water with fresh leaves.

  2. Boil for 3 minutes.

  3. Keep the steam contained.

  4. Let the plums sit away from the fire for 7-8 hours until they turn green.

  5. Drain the plums on a sieve.

Syrup and preserve

  1. Boil them in a clear syrup once a day for 3 days.

  2. Transfer the plums to clean, dry jars.

  3. Skim the syrup over heat.

  4. Pour the syrup over the plums when nearly cold.

  5. Cover with brandy paper.

  6. Seal with bladder.

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. Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Plum + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Green-gage plums
Provide the fruit that is softened and preserved in syrup.
Sugar
Makes the clear syrup that sweetens and preserves the plums.
Vine leaves
Added to the cooking water to contribute flavour and help the plums green.

The step that matters

Boiling the plums in the leaf-and-water bath. Boiling for only 3 minutes and keeping the steam contained matters because overcooking breaks down the plum flesh, while the long rest away from heat lets the plums slowly take on colour.

Swap the plum

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Plumthe 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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