Why it works: Sugar and plum 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 Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the plums
Wash the plums.
Prick the plums.
Place the plums in a stone jar.
Make and pour the syrup
Combine equal weights of sugar and water to make a thick syrup.
Boil the syrup.
Skim the syrup.
Pour the syrup over the plums.
Cover the plums with a plate.
Drain off the syrup the next day.
Boil the syrup again.
Skim the syrup again.
Pour the syrup over the plums again.
Repeat this process for three to four days.
Cook and store
Place the plums and syrup in a preserving kettle.
Boil slowly for half an hour.
Transfer to stone jars.
Cover with paper like jellies, or seal in cans.
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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Sugar + plumtop 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
- Hold their shape and release juice into the syrup as they cook and soak.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, with the syrup, draws out moisture to help preserve it.
The step that matters
Repeating the syrup soak over three to four days. Sugar must penetrate the fruit gradually. Reboiling and skimming the syrup each day keeps it clean and concentrated, so the plums are preserved rather than fermenting or softening unevenly.
“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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