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To Dry Imperatrice Plums

This recipe dries Imperatrice plums with sugar in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 ↓

To Dry Imperatrice Plums

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pack the plums into jars or wide-necked bottles.

  2. Add ½ pound of sugar to the plums, ensuring it is not shaken down.

Cook

  1. Place the jars in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 4 to 5 hours.

  2. Alternatively, place the jars in a pan of cold water with a little hay between them and boil gently for about 3 hours.

  3. Before boiling, tie a bladder over the necks of the jars and secure with paper or cork the bottles.

Rest

  1. Leave the plums in the syrup for a few days.

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

Imperatrice plums
Provide the fruit that softens and releases juice during the slow cooking.
Sugar
Draws moisture out of the plums to form a syrup and preserves the fruit.

The step that matters

Keep the sugar loose over the plums. Sugar that is packed down or shaken into the fruit can dissolve unevenly and leave dry patches. Letting it settle loosely lets the syrup form evenly as the plums cook.

“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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