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 ↓
The Cheese.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin and stone the plums.
Cook the preserve
Boil the plums for 1 hour and 15 minutes over a brisk fire, stirring constantly.
Add 1 pound of powdered sugar to the plums.
Boil the mixture for another 30 minutes.
Press the preserve into shallow pans or moulds.
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 body and pectin that thicken the mixture into a firm, sliceable cheese.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, by drawing out water, helps the mixture set into a thick paste.
The step that matters
Stirring during the long boil. The plum mixture is thick and sugars scorch easily on the bottom of the pan over a brisk fire. Constant stirring prevents burning and gives an even texture as water evaporates and the preserve concentrates.
“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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