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
Skin and stone 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.
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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 bulk, flavour, and natural pectin that helps the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, by concentrating as it boils, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boiling with constant stirring. Stirring keeps the fruit from sticking and scorching on the base of the pan. Boiling long enough drives off water so the sugar and pectin reach the concentration needed for the jam to set.
“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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