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 ↓
Canned Plums
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a preserving kettle over medium heat.
Cook and jar the plums
Prick each plum with a needle to prevent bursting.
Once the sugar is dissolved, add the plums to the kettle.
Heat slowly until boiling. Cook for 5 minutes.
Fill jars with plums to the rim and pour the hot liquid over them until overflowing.
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
- Greengage plums
- Provide the fruit, flavor and most of the texture of the finished preserve.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and syrup, and helps preserve flavor and texture in the jars.
The step that matters
Fill jars to the rim with hot liquid. Packing the plums with hot syrup drives air out of the jars and leaves the liquid full to the top. As the jars cool, the contents contract and the lids can seal more reliably, which helps the preserve keep.
“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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