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 ↓
Mirabelle Plums, Wet
Ingredients
Directions
Prick the mirabelle plums all over.
Soak the plums in cold water.
Boil a pan full of water.
Once boiling, add the plums and remove them when they float to the top.
Transfer the plums to cold water to cool.
Drain the plums and prepare a syrup by boiling sugar until it reaches a thread stage.
Preserve the plums in the syrup.
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
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