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Dessert

Pickled Plums

Pickled plums are preserved in a vinegar and sugar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cover the plums with vinegar.

  2. Drain the vinegar.

  3. Measure an equal amount of sugar.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, and allspice for 20 minutes.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the plums.

Simmer and bottle

  1. After 3 days, simmer the whole gently for 8 minutes.

  2. Turn out the plums and cool carefully.

  3. Bottle and cork the plums.

  4. Use whole pepper instead of cinnamon for a spicier version.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Orleans plums
Provide the fruit that absorbs the spiced vinegar syrup and keeps its shape when gently simmered.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sugar and helps preserve the fruit.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickling liquid and offsets the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cloves
Add a strong warm aroma to the pickling syrup.
Cinnamon
Adds a sweet, warm aroma to the pickling syrup.

The step that matters

Simmering the plums gently. Plums held at a hard boil can split and turn mushy. Keeping the heat low for the 8 minutes lets the fruit soften and absorb the syrup while holding its shape.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice. 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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