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Dessert

Preseeyed Plums

A method of preserving plums by layering with sugar, baking, clarifying juice, and storing in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 ↓

Preseeyed Plums

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Layer the plums and sugar in a stone jar, alternating between fruit and sugar.

  2. Place the jars in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the oven cools.

  3. If prepared at tea time, leave them until morning.

Make the syrup

  1. Strain the juice from the plums.

  2. Boil and clarify the juice.

Jar and seal

  1. Carefully transfer the fruit to glass or china jars.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the fruit.

  3. Cover tightly with paper or bladder.

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 + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 that is preserved and releases juice to form the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out juice while helping preserve it.

The step that matters

Pour the hot syrup over the fruit. Sugar concentration in the syrup inhibits spoilage microbes, so the syrup must be boiled and kept hot when poured to help keep the fruit preserved.

“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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