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 ↓
Plum Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin and stone the plums.
Sprinkle the sugar over the plums in a deep dish and let them sit overnight.
Cook
In the morning, boil the plums for twenty minutes until they bubble over their whole surface.
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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Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 and pectin that give the jam its body and flavor.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and draws moisture out of the fruit, helping it set when cooked.
The step that matters
Boiling the plums until they bubble over their whole surface. Sugar and fruit must reach a boil long enough for the pectin and acid to set the jam. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while cooking too long can make it dark and sticky.
“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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