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Dessert

Plum Fondu

A baked dessert of stewed damson plums mixed with butter, rice, eggs, cheese, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Plum Fondu

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 the plums

  1. Stone the plums and stew them with the sugar until tender.

  2. Cool the plums and add the melted butter, boiled rice, beaten eggs, grated cheese, pepper, and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

  3. Serve with roast duck or leg of lamb.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Plum + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Plum + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (fusel, malty).

  5. Plum + ricetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together187 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard-like body.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and body so the fondue holds together rather than running.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a tender texture and golden browning.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat, and helps the top brown during baking.
Damson plums
Provide tart fruit flavour and moisture once stewed soft with sugar.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the centre loose and wet, while overbaking can make the eggs dry and rubbery. Watch for a set centre and golden top.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, pepper, rice, egg, cheese):

  1. Lemonfits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, pepper, rice, egg, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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