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Dessert

Plum Jam

A jam made by cooking plums with sugar until set.

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 ↓

Plum Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Remove the stones from the plums, or cut them across and remove the stones as they rise in the pan.

  2. Layer the plums in a large dish, sprinkling sugar between each layer.

  3. Let the mixture sit overnight.

Cook the jam

  1. Transfer the mixture to a preserving pan.

  2. Heat slowly by the side of the fire, stirring occasionally.

  3. Boil gently until the jam sets quickly when tested on a cold plate.

Pot and store

  1. Pour the jam into pots.

  2. Cover closely.

  3. Store in a cool, dry place.

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

Plums
Provide the fruit body, pectin and acidity that give the jam its flavour and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, when boiled, thickens it and helps it keep.

The step that matters

Boil gently until the jam sets. Boiling gently concentrates the sugar and fruit pectin until the jam gels. Boiling too long or too hard can darken and dull the flavour, while stopping too early leaves it runny.

“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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