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 ↓
Plum Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the plum puree
Boil the plums in water until tender.
Rub the boiled plums through a sieve.
Make the jam
For every pint of plum puree, add 1 pound of sugar.
Cook the mixture until it reaches a marmalade consistency.
Pour the jam into tumblers as you would for jelly.
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.
-
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
- Supply the fruit body, flavor, and natural pectin that helps the jam thicken as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it set and keeps it preserved.
The step that matters
Cook the mixture until it reaches a marmalade consistency. Pectin, sugar and acid only form a soft gel once enough water has evaporated. Stopping too early leaves the jam runny, while cooking too long makes it stiff and can scorch the sugar.
“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.
More plum jam recipes
You might also like
Mixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.