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Another Way to Preserve Green Gages

A method for preserving plums by boiling them with sugar and adding kernels before serving.

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 ↓

Another Way to Preserve Green Gages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Put the plums into boiling water.

  2. Remove the skin and divide the plums.

  3. Strew half of the sugar over the fruit and let it sit for a few hours.

Cook

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the remaining sugar and the plums.

  2. Boil until the plums look clear, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. A few minutes before removing from heat, add the kernels.

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

Green gages (plums)
Provide the fruit, whose natural pectin and acidity help the preserve set and keep its flavour.
Pounded loaf sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out moisture, and helps preserve it and give it a thick, glossy set.
Plum kernels
Add a subtle almond-like aroma to the preserved plums.

The step that matters

Boiling until the plums look clear. Boiling too briefly leaves the fruit underset and prone to spoiling, while over-boiling can break it down and darken the colour. Skimming removes scum so the preserve stays clear and clean-tasting.

“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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