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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and weigh the plums.
Cook the plums until soft, then strain them.
Add ¾ pound of sugar for every pound of plums and cook for 25 minutes.
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, pectin and tartness that form the marmalade's body and flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps the marmalade thicken and keep as it cooks.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar and cooking for 25 minutes. Sugar must be added to the strained plum pulp and cooked long enough to reach a set. Too little cooking leaves the marmalade runny, while overcooking can darken and caramelise it, changing the flavour.
“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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