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 the plums
Skin and stone the plums.
Cook the plums
Boil the plums for 1 hour and 15 minutes over a brisk fire, stirring constantly.
Add 1 pound of powdered sugar to the plums and boil for another 30 minutes.
Press the mixture into shallow pans or molds.
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.
-
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 base and flavor that the mixture cooks down into a thick paste.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and thickens the mixture as it cooks down, helping it set when cooled.
The step that matters
Stirring constantly during the long boil. The plum mixture is thick and sugary, so it can scorch on the bottom of the pan over a brisk fire. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture from burning while the water evaporates.
“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.
More plum cheese recipes
You might also like
Mixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.