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 ↓
Green Gage Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the plums
Wash the plums and stew them with enough water to prevent scorching.
Mash the plums and strain the pulp through a colander.
Make the jam
For every pint of pulp, add 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the mixture until it forms a smooth mass.
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
- Green gage plums
- Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and flavour of the jam.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it boils, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it forms a smooth mass. Sugar and fruit pectin set into a gel only at high concentration and temperature. Boiling too briefly leaves the jam runny, while overboiling can scorch the sugar and darken the 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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