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 ↓
Canned Plums
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the plums and pierce the skins with a silver fork.
Pack the plums in jars and set them in a steamer or wash boiler, surrounding the jars with cold water.
Cook the plums until tender.
Remove the jars and pour off the juice.
Fill the jars with some of the cooked fruit or fruit ready in a stew-pan.
Prepare a heavy syrup that is boiling hot and pour it over the cooked fruit, then seal the jars.
Strain the poured-off juice and make it into jelly as usual.
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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