Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Stewed Prunes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the prunes and soak them overnight in the water.
Cook and serve
Cook the prunes gently in the soaking water for two hours or until soft.
Add the sugar and lemon juice, then cook for an additional ten minutes.
Allow to cool before serving.
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.
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Prunes
- Soften during long cooking and provide the main body and sweet flavour of the dish.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the prunes.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the sweet fruit.
The step that matters
Cook gently in the soaking water. Gentle heat softens the prune flesh evenly without breaking the skins apart. A hard boil can split the fruit and make the texture ragged.
“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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