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Dessert

Canned Plums

A method for preserving plums by boiling them with sugar and canning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 ↓

Canned Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prick the plums to prevent breaking.

  2. Layer the plums and sugar alternately in a preserving kettle.

  3. Let the mixture sit on the back of the stove for 1-2 hours.

Cook and jar

  1. Place the kettle over moderate heat and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off any foam and pour the mixture into jars.

  3. Run a silver spoon handle around the inside of the jar to break air bubbles.

  4. Cover and screw down the jar tops.

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

Plums
Provide the fruit that softens and releases juice to form the syrup.
Sugar
Draws moisture from the fruit and preserves it while adding sweetness.

The step that matters

Letting the plums sit with sugar before heating. The sugar must be layered with the plums and given time to draw out juice, forming a syrup. Heating too early can scorch the sugar or leave the fruit unevenly cooked, so the resting period helps the fruit hold its shape and cook evenly.

“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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