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
Place the skinned and pitted plums in a deep dish.
Sprinkle the sugar over the plums and let them sit overnight.
Cook
In the morning, heat the mixture until it bubbles over the surface.
Boil for 20 minutes.
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 body, pectin and tartness that form the jam's texture and flavor.
- Sugar
- Draws moisture out of the plums and preserves the jam while sweetening it.
The step that matters
Heating until it bubbles over the surface. The mixture must reach a full boil so the sugar dissolves and the pectin in the fruit can set the jam as it cools. Heating too gently leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or scorched.
“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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