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 Pie
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.
Make the filling
Simmer the plums in a little sugar and water until tender.
Remove the plums and add more sugar to the juice.
Boil the juice until there is just enough for the pies.
Pour the juice over the plums and let it cool.
Assemble and bake
Line the pie plates with puff pastry.
Fill the plates with the plums.
Cover with puff pastry and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
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 main fruit filling, softening into tender pieces when simmered.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and juice, and helps thicken the reduced syrup.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, buttery crust that encloses the plum filling.
The step that matters
Boil the juice until there is just enough for the pies. Boiling concentrates the juice and its sugar. If it is left too thin, the pies will be soggy. If it is over-reduced, the syrup turns sticky and too sweet.
“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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