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 ↓
Preserve Op the Magntjm Bonum, or Mogul Plum
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare and weigh the plums.
Cook the preserve
Boil the plums for 40 minutes.
Stir in half the weight of sugar and continue boiling for 10 minutes until dissolved.
Skim the preserve carefully while boiling.
For added flavor, mix in blanched kernels of fruit-stones 2-3 minutes before removing from heat.
If plums are not ripe, boil down and press through a sieve.
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
- Provide the fruit body and pectin that give the preserve its body and set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit and thicken the preserve as it cooks.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar. Sugar should be stirred in after the plums have softened and reduced, then boiled until fully dissolved. Adding it too early or stopping too soon can leave grains or a runny preserve, since sugar and pectin need sustained heat to set properly.
“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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