Why it works: Sugar and plum 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 ↓
Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the stones from the plums.
Cook
Boil the plums for 40 minutes.
Optionally, press the fruit through a sieve after the first boiling, but this may remove the skins.
Add the sugar and boil for an additional 15 minutes.
Jar
Pour into jars and let cool.
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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Sugar + plumtop 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 flavour, body and natural pectin that helps the marmalade thicken.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, helps the mixture set into a gel and preserves it.
The step that matters
Boiling after adding the sugar. Sugar and the fruit's pectin need a sustained boil to set. If the mixture is pulled off the heat too early it will stay runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dark.
“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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