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Dessert

Peeserved Plums

A method of preserving plums by layering them with sugar, baking, clarifying the 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 ↓

Peeserved Plums

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the plums

  1. Layer the plums and sugar in a stone jar.

  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 and 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, supplying flavor and the soft texture of the finished preserve.
Sugar
Draws water out of the fruit and preserves it, while adding sweetness to the finished preserve.

The step that matters

Place the jars in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the oven cools. Gentle, prolonged heat softens the plums and draws them into the sugar. Overheating can break the fruit apart, while too little heat leaves it firm and poorly 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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