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 ↓
Plum Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the plums
Remove the stones from the plums or cut them across and remove the stones as they rise in the pan.
Layer the plums in a large dish, sprinkling sugar between each layer, and let them sit overnight.
Cook the jam
Transfer the mixture to a preserving pan and heat slowly by the side of the fire, stirring occasionally.
Boil gently until the jam sets quickly when tested on a cold plate.
Pour the jam into pots, cover, and store.
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
- Plums
- Provide the fruit, pectin and acidity that give the jam its body and tartness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep by drawing out juice and binding water.
The step that matters
Boil gently until the jam sets. Boiling too hard or too long can scorch the sugar and darken the flavour, while boiling too briefly leaves the jam runny. Testing on a cold plate shows whether pectin and sugar have reached a set.
“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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