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 ↓
Green-gage Jam, or Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the plums
Boil the plums in a preserving pan for 50 minutes, stirring well.
Add sugar and set
Add the powdered sugar to the plums and boil for an additional 5 to 8 minutes.
Skim off any scum before pouring the jam into jars.
If the flesh will not separate
If the flesh does not separate easily from the stones, boil the whole plums to a pulp, sieve them, and adjust the sugar based on the weight of the stones.
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
- Green-gage plums
- Provide the fruit, pulp, and natural pectin that give the jam its body and set.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep by binding water and supporting the pectin gel.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar and boiling until set. Sugar must dissolve fully and the mixture must boil long enough to reach the gel point. Too little boiling leaves the jam runny, while too much can darken and stiffen it.
“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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