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Dessert

Spiced Plums

A preserved plum dish flavored with vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large pot, combine the brown sugar and vinegar.

  2. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and mace, and bring to a boil.

Cook the plums

  1. Once boiling, add the plums and cook until they begin to soften.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Plum + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Plum + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together446 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Plums
Provide the fruit that softens and absorbs the spiced syrup during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the syrup a sharp tang balancing the sugar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the syrup, helping it coat and preserve the fruit.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma and flavor to the syrup.
Cloves
Contributes strong, pungent aroma and a warm spice note.
Mace
Contributes a delicate, nutmeg-like aroma and warm flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the plums until they just begin to soften. Plums keep their shape best when cooked briefly. Overcooking breaks down the cell walls, turning the fruit mushy and cloudy, so the cook should stop as soon as softening begins.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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