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 ↓
Modern Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Place the plums in a baking dish.
Add the sugar on top of the plums without shaking it down.
Bake
Bake the plums in the oven for 4 to 5 hours, or steam them for 3 hours.
Rest and finish
Leave the plums in the syrup for a few days before finishing them as you would with other dried fruits.
Seal jars with a bladder and paper or cork them before baking.
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 flesh that softens and dries into a chewy, concentrated texture.
- Sugar
- Draws water out of the plums and dissolves into syrup, sweetening and helping preserve the fruit.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar without shaking it down. Sugar pulls water out of the fruit gradually as it dissolves into syrup. Packing it down changes how evenly the sugar contacts the plums, so drying and sweetness can vary across the dish.
“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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