Why it works: Plum and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Another Almack Preserve
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the fruit
Combine the plums, apples, and pears in a pan.
Boil the mixture without water until well blended.
Remove the stones from the fruit.
Stir in the sugar.
Boil for 1 hour.
Transfer the mixture to shallow pans or soup plates.
Dry in the sun or a cool oven.
Steep in syrup
Prick the plums with a needle to prevent bursting.
Simmer the plums gently in a thin syrup.
Place the plums in a china bowl.
Let the plums cool.
Pour the syrup over the plums.
Let the mixture sit for 3 days.
Pack and finish
Make a fresh syrup with 3 pounds of sugar and 5 pounds of fruit, using minimal water.
Drain the plums from the first syrup.
Boil the plums gently in the fresh syrup until clear and sticky.
Pack the plums into small pots.
Pour the fresh syrup over the plums.
Reserve a bit of syrup.
Boil the reserved syrup quickly.
Give the fruit one last warm bath.
Drain the fruit.
Dry the fruit on plates in a cool oven.
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 + peartop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + peartop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together649 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Plum + appletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 flavour and body, and hold their shape when gently simmered in syrup.
- Apples
- Contribute natural pectin that helps the preserve thicken and set as it cooks.
- Pears
- Add soft texture and mild sweetness, blending into the fruit base as it boils.
- Sugar
- Preserves the fruit, sweetens it, and thickens the syrup into a sticky glaze.
The step that matters
Boil the plums gently in the fresh syrup. Vigorous boiling breaks the fruit down and makes the skins split, while gentle simmering lets the sugar slowly penetrate and keeps the plums whole and clear.
Swap the plum
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, pear, sugar):
- Plumthe original
- Apricotfits about as well
- Vanillafits about as well
- Quincefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, pear, sugar. 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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