Skip to main content
Dessert

Plum-jam

A jam made from plums, sugar, and brandy, boiled and sealed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Plum and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 168 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum-jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Wash the plums, dry them, and weigh them.

  2. Measure out ¾ of their weight in sugar.

Make the jam

  1. Place the plums in a pot over medium heat and boil gently for 45 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

  2. Remove the stones as they rise to the surface.

  3. Crack one-fourth of the stones.

  4. Add the sugar.

  5. Continue boiling for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

  6. Remove any scum.

  7. Add the cracked kernels five minutes before finishing.

Jar and seal

  1. Transfer the jam to jars once partially cool.

  2. Place a paper dipped in brandy in each jar.

  3. Seal the jars airtight.

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. Plum + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together168 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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 fruit, pectin, and tart flavor that form the body of the jam.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and keep by binding water.
Brandy
Dipped paper placed in each jar adds aroma and helps preserve the jam during sealing.

The step that matters

Stirring and skimming during the long boil. Plums and sugar scorch easily on the bottom of a pot over heat, so frequent stirring prevents burning. Removing scum keeps the jam clear and fresh-tasting.

Swap the plum

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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.

More plum jam recipes

Damson 6Apricot 5Black 4Green Gage 3Mirabelle 3 See all 63 →

You might also like

Brandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipesBrandy PuddingBrandy Pudding13 recipesMixed Fruit SherbetMixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipes