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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the plums
Scald the plums until the skins peel off.
Remove the stones from the plums.
Make the marmalade
Combine the plums and sugar in a bowl and let them sit for a few hours.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a smooth consistency.
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 base, along with natural pectin and acidity that help the marmalade set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit, draws out its moisture, and helps the mixture thicken as it cooks.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it reaches a smooth consistency. As water evaporates, the sugar and fruit pectin concentrate and form a gel. Stopping too early leaves the marmalade runny, while cooking too long makes it stiff and dull.
“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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