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Aunt Fannie Merrick's Spiced Plums

A preserve of plums, cantaloupe, vinegar, brown sugar, cloves, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Aunt Fannie Merrick's Spiced Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Make the syrup by combining vinegar and brown sugar in a pot over medium heat until dissolved.

  2. Cut the cantaloupe into thin slices and add it to the syrup.

  3. Add the plums to the pot and cook until tender.

Steep and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a jar and let it sit for a few days.

  2. After a few days, pour off the syrup, bring it to a boil, and pour it over the plums and cantaloupe again.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Plum + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together446 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Plum + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Plums
Provide the main fruit body and structure that softens into the preserve as it cooks.
Cantaloupe
Adds bulk and mild sweetness, with pectin-containing flesh that helps the preserve thicken.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the preserve and thickens the syrup as it dissolves and cooks down.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and flavor to the syrup.
Cloves
Contributes strong aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.

The step that matters

Cooking the plums until tender. Plums must soften fully so their pectin and sugar set the preserve evenly. Undercooked fruit stays firm and separates from the syrup, while overcooking can break it down into a thin, mushy texture.

Swap the plum

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Plumthe original

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