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Dessert

Compote of Prunes

A sweet compote made from French plums simmered in syrup and served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and sherry work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 58 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Compote of Prunes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Soak the plums in warm water for 15 minutes.

  2. Drain the plums and simmer them in the compote syrup.

  3. Add the sherry or curaçao and stew for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Let the plums cool, then arrange them neatly.

  2. Pour the syrup over the plums and cover with thick cream.

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 + sherrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Plum + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Syrup + sherrytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

French plums
Provide the main fruit flavour and a soft, tender texture once stewed.
Compote syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and carries flavour into the plums as they simmer.
Sherry or curaçao
Adds aromatic depth and a hint of fruity flavour to the stewed plums.
Thick cream
Adds richness and fat that softens the tart, sweet flavour of the plums.

The step that matters

Simmer the plums gently in the syrup. Fruit held at a gentle simmer keeps its shape and skin intact. Boiling hard breaks the plums apart and makes the syrup cloudy, so the arranged presentation falls apart.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sherry, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sherry, cream. 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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