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Plum- J AM

A jam made from plums, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 168 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum- J AM

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the plums.

  2. Dry the plums.

  3. Weigh the plums.

Cook the jam

  1. Add ¾ cup of sugar for every cup of plums.

  2. Boil the plums gently for 45 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

  3. Remove the stones as they rise to the surface.

  4. Crack one-fourth of them.

  5. Add the sugar.

  6. Boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

  7. Remove scum.

  8. Add the cracked kernels.

Jar and seal

  1. Transfer the jam to jars.

  2. Place paper dipped in brandy on top of each jar.

  3. Seal them airtight.

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 + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together168 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Plums
Provide the fruit, pulp and natural pectin that give the jam its body as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the jam while preserving it.

The step that matters

Stir often while boiling the plums. Fruit sugar scorches quickly on the bottom of the pan, so frequent stirring prevents burning and keeps the jam tasting fresh rather than bitter.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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.

More plum jam recipes

Damson 6Apricot 5Black 4Green Gage 3Mirabelle 3 See all 63 →

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