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Stewed Pruneaux De Tours, or Tours Dried Plums

A stew of dried plums simmered with water, optional port wine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and port wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Stewed Pruneaux De Tours, or Tours Dried Plums

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine dried plums and water in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer until plums are tender, about 30 minutes.

  3. If using, add port wine and sugar, and stir well.

  4. Continue to simmer for another 30 minutes until the mixture thickens.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Plum + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Port wine + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together805 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried plums
Provide the main fruit body and soften into tender, sweet pieces as they simmer.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the syrup thicken and turn glossy as it simmers.
Port wine
Adds depth and aroma to the syrup; it is optional in this recipe.

The step that matters

Simmering until the mixture thickens. Sugar and fruit pectin concentrate as liquid evaporates, so the syrup thickens gradually. Simmering too hard can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pot, while stopping too early leaves the sauce thin.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, sugar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Pearfits about as well
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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