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Dessert

Confiture De Prunes

A jam made from Reine Claude or Mirabelle prunes, sugar, and plum kernels.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Confiture De Prunes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the kernels from the plums.

Cook

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the plums and sugar over medium heat.

  2. Stir until the mixture is done.

  3. Test by placing a bit on a plate and pressing it with your finger; if it leaves a string when removed, it's ready.

Finish

  1. Break the stones, remove the kernels, and soak them in hot water to remove the skin.

  2. Mix the kernels into the confiture a few minutes before removing it from the heat.

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

Reine claude or mirabelle plums
Provide the main fruit flavour and the body of the jam.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, as it concentrates, helps it thicken and keep.
Kernels from the plum stones
Add a subtle almond-like aroma when mixed into the jam.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness. Jam sets as water evaporates and sugar and fruit pectin concentrate. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam, while cooking too long makes it stiff and dull.

“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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