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 Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and soak
Wash and prick the plums, then place them in a stone jar.
Make a rich syrup by heating the sugar with water until dissolved.
Pour the hot syrup over the plums and cover closely.
Boil the syrup
Drain off the syrup and boil it for four consecutive days.
After the last boil, combine the syrup and plums in a kettle and boil for half an hour.
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
- Supply the fruit, which softens and absorbs sugar as the syrup is repeatedly boiled.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out its moisture.
The step that matters
Boiling the syrup on successive days. Each boil concentrates the sugar in the syrup and the fruit is steeped between boils, so the sugar gradually replaces the water in the plums. Boiling too hard or too early can toughen or break the fruit.
“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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