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Dessert

Stewed Plums

Plums stewed in a sugar syrup after skin removal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stewed Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Pour boiling water over the plums to remove the skin.

  2. Halve the plums and remove the stones.

Make the syrup and stew

  1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and enough water to dissolve.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add the plums and stew for 10 minutes.

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 + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 that softens and releases juice as it stews.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps the plums keep their shape while stewing.

The step that matters

Bring the syrup to a boil before adding the plums. Sugar must fully dissolve first so the syrup is clear and evenly sweet. Adding plums to a syrup that is still undissolved or unevenly heated can leave gritty or unevenly cooked fruit.

“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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