Skip to main content
Dessert

Brandied Green-gage Plums

A preserve of green-gage plums stewed with alum, sugar, water, and French brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Plum and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 163 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Brandied Green-gage Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums and leaves

  1. Wash and dry the plums.

  2. Wash and drain the leaves.

  3. In a preserving kettle, place a layer of leaves three deep.

  4. Weigh the plums and add a piece of alum for each pound.

  5. Layer the plums and leaves in the kettle, sprinkling pulverized alum among them.

  6. Cover the last layer of plums with three layers of leaves.

  7. Pour just enough cold water to cover the plums.

Steam the plums

  1. Cover the kettle with a clean towel and a tight lid to keep in steam.

  2. Place the kettle on the back of the stove to heat gradually and steam for two hours.

  3. Do not allow the plums to boil.

  4. Once the plums are quite green, drain and cool them.

  5. Place the plums in wide-mouthed glass jars.

Make the syrup and bottle

  1. For the syrup, combine half a pound of sugar and half a pint of water in a preserving kettle.

  2. Boil and skim the syrup until clear, then cool it.

  3. Add an equal measure of French brandy to the cooled syrup.

  4. Fill the jars with syrup and cork and seal them tightly.

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 + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Peach + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together94 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

  5. Plum + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Green-gage plums
Form the fruit that is candied and preserved in the brandy syrup.
Alum
Firms the plum flesh so it holds its shape during steaming and soaking.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit.
French brandy
Adds alcohol and flavour to the syrup, aiding preservation.

The step that matters

Do not allow the plums to boil. Gentle steaming below a boil keeps the fruit intact and firm; boiling would break the skins and soften the flesh.

Swap the plum

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, corn, 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.

You might also like

Mixed Fruit SherbetMixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipes