Why it works: Plum and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,313 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Plum Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the plums in water until perfectly tender.
Mash the plums through a fine sieve.
Return the mixture to the saucepan, add sugar, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes.
Strain the syrup and pour it into hot, sterile jars.
Seal the jars tightly.
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.
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Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,313 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Plums
- Provide the fruit flavour, tartness and body that the syrup is built from.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and helps it thicken and keep as it cooks down.
- Water
- Gives the plums liquid to soften in before they are mashed and strained.
The step that matters
Cooking with sugar for 25 to 30 minutes. Sugar must dissolve fully and the syrup must be cooked long enough to thicken. Too little cooking leaves a thin syrup that may spoil, while overcooking can make it too thick or cause sugar to crystallise.
“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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