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 plums
Skin and stone the plums.
Macerate and cook
Sprinkle the sugar over the plums in a deep dish and let sit overnight.
In the morning, boil the plums and sugar mixture for 20 minutes once it starts bubbling.
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, pectin and tart flavour that form the body of the jam.
- Loaf sugar
- Draws moisture out of the fruit and sweetens, helping the jam thicken and keep.
The step that matters
Boiling the plum and sugar mixture. Boiling must be vigorous enough to reach the setting point of the jam. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while overcooking can darken the colour and dull the fresh fruit flavour.
“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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