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 ↓
Fruits, to Preserve for Tarts or Family Desserts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather ripe cherries, plums, or American apples.
Place the fruit in small jars that hold 1 pound each.
Add 6 ounces of pounded sugar to each jar.
Seal and cook
Cover each jar with two tied bladders.
Submerge the jars in a large stewpan of water up to the neck.
Boil gently for 3 hours.
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 + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Cherries, plums, or american apples
- Provide the fruit that cooks down and holds its shape in the jar.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it during the long gentle cooking.
The step that matters
Boil gently for 3 hours. A gentle simmer keeps the water from churning and letting steam or water into the jars, which would spoil the preserved fruit. A steady low heat also cooks the fruit through without breaking it apart.
“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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