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Prunes, Stewed

Stewed prunes simmered with sugar, corn starch, and sherry wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and sherry work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 145 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Prunes, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the prunes in cold water.

  2. Place them in a porcelain saucepan and cover with cold water.

Cook the prunes

  1. Cook until soft, about 15 minutes before they are done.

  2. Add the sugar.

  3. Remove the prunes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Stir the corn starch mixed with a little cold water into the juice.

  2. Boil for 3 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Stir in the sherry wine.

  5. Pour the sauce over the prunes.

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. Corn + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Corn + winetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together366 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Prunes
Form the dish's main body and, as they soften, release sweet juice into the sauce.
Corn starch
Thickens the cooking juice into a glossy sauce as it heats and swells.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tart, concentrated flavour of dried prunes.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a touch of acidity to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the cornstarch slurry into the juice, then boil. Cornstarch must be mixed with cold water first so it does not clump, and it only thickens fully once the liquid reaches a boil. Adding it dry or skipping the boil leaves a thin, cloudy sauce with a raw starchy taste.

“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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