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.
Prepare the plums and syrup
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 tin plates with rich pastry dough.
Fill the plates with plums and cover with puff pastry.
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.
-
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 and the juice that becomes the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and thickens it as it boils down into a syrup.
- Rich pastry dough
- Forms a sturdy, rich base that holds the filling and resists sogginess.
- Puff pastry dough
- Forms a flaky, airy top crust that rises and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice until just enough remains. Boiling concentrates the sugar and thickens the juice. Boiling too long makes it sticky and overly thick, while stopping too early leaves a runny syrup that can soak the pastry base.
“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 pie recipes
You might also like
Mixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.