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 Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the plums
Scald the plums until they crack open.
Let them cool.
Pass the cooled plums through a colander.
Make the butter
Measure the prepared plums and add an equal amount of sugar.
Season with your choice of spices.
Boil the mixture for 3 hours; it will not require sealing.
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
- Form the bulk of the butter and supply natural fruit sugars, acidity and pectin that help it thicken.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, as water evaporates during boiling, helps concentrate the mixture into a thick spread.
The step that matters
Boiling the mixture. As the mixture boils, water evaporates and the sugar and fruit pectin concentrate, so the butter thickens. Boiling too gently leaves it runny, while too vigorous a boil without stirring can scorch the sugars on the bottom of the pot.
“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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