Name: Plum Preserves
Ingredients: plums; sugar; water; egg or tissue paper for covering

Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Plum Preserves

Ingredients

plums
sugar
water
egg or tissue paper for covering

Directions

Prepare the plums by washing and pitting them.
Place the plums in a pot with water and sugar.
Cook until the plums are soft and the mixture thickens.
Strain the juice from the plums and boil it to clarify.
Transfer the fruit to glass or china jars.
Pour the hot syrup over the fruit and cover tightly with egg, tissue paper, or bladder.

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.

Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,313 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Plum + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together794 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).