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Dessert

Plums, Candied

Candied plums are plums cooked in a sugar syrup, optionally with cracked kernels and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Plums, Candied

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and dry

  1. Cut the plums in half and lay them on a large shallow dish.

  2. Strew powdered sugar over the plums.

  3. Place the plums in a 350°F (175°C) oven, tightly closed.

  4. After 30 minutes, remove the plums.

  5. Place the plums on glass plates to dry.

  6. Prick the skins with a large needle or blanch them in boiling water if removing the skins.

Make the syrup

  1. Prepare a thick syrup with 1½ pounds of sugar for every pound of fruit.

  2. Simmer the plums in the syrup for at least 2 hours without boiling.

  3. Skim out the plums from the syrup.

  4. Boil the syrup down for about 1 hour until thick.

  5. Boil the syrup with ½ pint of cracked kernels for added flavor.

  6. Strain the kernels out of the syrup.

Finish

  1. Scald the plums in alum water.

  2. Pour hot syrup over the plums daily for a week.

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 + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
The main fruit, whose skins and flesh hold their shape and absorb the syrup as it cooks.
Powdered sugar
Draws moisture out of the cut fruit and begins sweetening it before the syrup stage.
Sugar
Forms a thick syrup that sweetens the fruit and, over time, replaces its water to preserve it.
Cracked kernels
Flavors the syrup, adding aroma.

The step that matters

Simmer the plums in the syrup for at least 2 hours without boiling. Gentle heat lets sugar slowly penetrate the fruit and replace its water while keeping the skins intact. Boiling would toughen the skins and break the plums apart.

“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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