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Dessert

Preserved Plums

A method of preserving plums by layering with sugar, boiling, and jar sealing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 ↓

Preserved Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Use equal parts of fruit and sugar by weight.

  2. Scald the plums to remove the skins, or prick unpeeled plums in several places to allow juice to exude.

  3. Let the plums stand.

  4. Drain the plums.

Cook the plums in syrup

  1. Layer the plums in a kettle with alternate layers of sugar.

  2. Pour the juice over the plums.

  3. Boil for five minutes.

  4. Remove the plums with a skimmer.

  5. Boil the syrup until it thickens.

  6. Return the plums to the kettle.

  7. Boil for an additional ten minutes.

Jar and seal

  1. Transfer the plums to jars.

  2. Seal tightly once cooled.

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
Provide the fruit that softens and holds its shape in the sugar syrup.
Sugar
Preserves the fruit and sweetens it, drawing out juice and thickening the syrup as it boils.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until it thickens. Sugar concentration must rise enough to preserve the fruit and set the syrup. Removing the plums first lets the syrup reduce without overcooking the fruit.

“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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