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Dessert

Prunes

A simple dish of prunes boiled in water, optionally flavored with tart dried plums or lemon and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Prunes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Inspect prunes for imperfections and wash thoroughly in two waters.

  2. Combine prunes and boiling water in a pot.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes until soft.

  2. Add tart dried plums or sliced lemon when prunes are nearly done.

  3. Add a little sugar before serving if using tart plums.

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

Prunes
Provide the main body, soft texture and sweet, concentrated fruit flavor as they soften in hot water.
Tart dried plums
Add acidity and a sharper flavor that balances the sweetness of the prunes.
Sliced lemon
Adds bright acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer until soft, not longer. Dried fruit softens as its cell walls hydrate and break down during simmering. Stopping at the right point keeps the fruit intact and tender rather than mushy or split.

“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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