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Dessert

Plum Conserves

A preserve made from plums, sugar, citrus, raisins, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Plum Conserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the plums, raisins, and nuts.

  2. Grate the rinds of the oranges and lemons.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a pot and cook for about 45 minutes.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Plum + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Plum + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together623 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Plums
Provide the main fruit flavor and body of the preserve as they cook down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit while it thickens.
Lemons
Their acidity helps pectin in the fruit set the preserve.
Oranges
Add citrus aroma and acidity, with the rind contributing fragrant oils.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Pecans or english walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, rich flavor that contrasts with the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Cook for the full time. The mixture thickens as water evaporates and sugar and fruit pectin set together. Acid from the citrus helps the pectin gel. Stopping early leaves the preserve runny, while cooking too long can scorch the sugar and darken the flavor.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, sugar, orange, lemon, raisin):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, sugar, orange, lemon, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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