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
Prepare the plums
Scald the plums until they crack open, then let them cool.
Pass the cooled plums through a colander.
Cook
Measure the prepared plums and add an equal amount of sugar or sweetener.
Season with your desired spices.
Boil the mixture for 3 hours; it will not require sealing.
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 fruit pulp that cooks down into the thick, spreadable body of the butter.
- Sugar or sweetener
- Adds sweetness and, as it thickens during cooking, helps the butter set and keep.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for 3 hours. Long, gentle boiling drives off water and concentrates the fruit, so the butter thickens; stopping early leaves it runny and more likely to spoil.
“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.
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.