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Dessert

Spiced Plums

Preserved plums steeped in a spiced sugar‑vinegar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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. Combine 1 pound of sugar with ⅓ cup of vinegar to make a syrup.

  2. Add 1 ounce each of ground cinnamon, cloves, mace, and allspice to the syrup.

  3. Prick the plums and add them to the boiling syrup.

Steep and finish

  1. Let the plums stand in the syrup for three days.

  2. Skim the plums out.

  3. Boil the syrup until thick.

  4. Pour the hot syrup over the plums in a jar and cover closely.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 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 standing.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and, as it thickens, helps preserve the fruit.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the syrup and balances the sweetness.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and flavor to the syrup.
Ground cloves
Contributes pungent aroma and flavor to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until thick. Boiling concentrates the sugar and vinegar, so the syrup thickens and holds more sugar. Under-reduced syrup stays thin and may not protect the fruit well once it is sealed in a jar.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, plum, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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