Name: Mogul Plums
Ingredients: preserved Mogul plums; 5 ounces sugar; 1 quart brandy

Why it works: Plum and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 168 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mogul Plums

Ingredients

preserved Mogul plums
5 ounces sugar
1 quart brandy

Directions

Drain the syrup from the preserved Mogul plums and place them in a jar.
Dissolve 5 ounces of sugar in 1 quart of brandy.
Pour the sugar-brandy mixture over the plums.
Seal the jar tightly.

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.

Plum + brandytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together168 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,313 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Preserved mogul plums: Provide the main fruit flavor and soft texture of the finished dish.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the strong flavor of the brandy.
Brandy: Carries the flavor into the fruit and acts as a preservative with the sugar.