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Dessert

Confiture De Prunes

A jam made from prunes, sugar, and water, with blanched kernels added.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Confiture De Prunes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Remove the kernels from the plums.

Cook the jam

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the plums and sugar over medium heat.

  2. Stir until the mixture is done.

  3. Test by placing a bit on a plate and pressing it with your finger; if it leaves a string when removed, it's ready.

Add the kernels

  1. Break the stones, remove the kernels, and blanch them in hot water to remove the skin.

  2. Mix the blanched kernels into the confiture a few minutes before removing it from the heat.

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

Heine claude or mirabelle plums
Provide the fruit base, along with natural pectin and acidity that help the jam set.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, as water evaporates, concentrates to help it gel and keep.
Kernels
Add a nutty, almond-like aroma to the finished jam.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness with the string test. As water evaporates, sugar and fruit pectin concentrate and gel. Removing the jam too early leaves it runny, while cooking too long makes it stiff and can scorch the sugar. The finger test on a cold plate shows when it has set.

“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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