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Dessert

Preserved Plums

Preserved plums are plums cured in vinegar and sugar with cloves and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Preserved Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Wash and dry the plums.

  2. Place the plums in a jar.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Boil the wine vinegar with sugar, skimming the boiling mixture.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Pour the cooled vinegar over the plums.

  4. After 1–2 days, strain the vinegar.

  5. Boil the strained vinegar again.

Repeat and finish

  1. Pour the cooled vinegar over the plums.

  2. Repeat this process three times.

  3. Before the last pour, prick the plums with a fork.

  4. Add boiled cloves and cinnamon to the vinegar.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Plum + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Plum + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together446 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Plum + winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Hold their shape and absorb the sweet, spiced vinegar as the main fruit.
Wine vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, adding sharp acidity that keeps the fruit stable.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the fruit.

The step that matters

Pricking the plums before the last pour. Piercing the skins lets the hot, acidic syrup penetrate the flesh evenly. Without it, the fruit can stay firm at the centre and flavour unevenly.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Quincefits about as well
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon. 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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