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 ↓
Magnum Bonum Plums
Ingredients
Directions
Stick the plums with a large needle.
In a pot, combine the plums and sugar to make a syrup.
Bring to a boil and let simmer slowly until the plums are clear.
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
- Magnum bonum plums
- Provide the fruit flavor and body of the syrup as they soften during cooking.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and thickens the liquid into a syrup as it dissolves and concentrates.
The step that matters
Simmer slowly until the plums are clear. A hard boil can break the plums apart and make the syrup cloudy. A gentle simmer softens the fruit while keeping it mostly intact and letting the sugar dissolve evenly.
“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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