Name: Preserved Egg Plums
Ingredients: fine large egg plums; water; clarified sugar

Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Preserved Egg Plums

Ingredients

fine large egg plums
water
clarified sugar

Directions

Prick the egg plums five or six times with a fork.
Place them in a preserving pan with water and simmer over low heat until tender, being careful not to break them.
Transfer the plums to cold water.
The next day, drain the plums using a coarse sieve.
Pour clarified sugar over the plums and finish as directed for preserved apricots.

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.

Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,313 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Egg + plumtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together794 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).