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 Butter
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the plums
Cook plums in enough water to almost cover them.
Drain the water and rub the plums through a colander.
Make the butter
For each cup of plum puree, add one cup of sugar.
Place the mixture in a granite kettle and cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes after it boils, stirring occasionally.
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 fruit pulp and natural pectin that thicken the butter as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps thicken the puree into a spreadable butter.
The step that matters
Stirring while the mixture cooks in the oven. Sugar-rich fruit purees can scorch on the bottom of the kettle as they thicken. Stirring occasionally spreads heat evenly and keeps the butter from burning.
“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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