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 ↓
To Preserve Magnum Bonum Plums
Ingredients
Directions
Place the plums in a pan filled with spring water over low heat.
Gently press down on the plums with a spoon until the skins loosen.
Remove the plums and peel off the skins with a knife.
Prepare a fine syrup and gently boil the plums in it.
Stir the plums often in the syrup to prevent browning until they cool.
Reheat the plums and boil for 5-6 minutes.
Remove the plums and let them cool, stirring in the syrup frequently.
Lay the plums separately on a flat dish.
Strain the syrup through a cloth and measure it.
Add an equal weight of fine loaf sugar to the syrup and boil, skimming as needed.
Return the plums to the syrup and boil until clear.
Transfer the plums to jars, covering them with syrup to maintain color.
Seal with brandy paper.
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
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