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To Pickle Plums

A method of pickling plums in a vinegar and sugar syrup with cassia and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cassia and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 194 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

To Pickle Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Place the plums in a stone jar.

  2. Combine vinegar and sugar in a pot and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Pour the boiling syrup over the plums.

  4. Let the plums stand for 24 hours.

Syrup and repeat

  1. Drain the syrup and bring it to a boil again.

  2. Pour the boiling syrup over the plums once more.

  3. After another 24 hours, transfer the plums and syrup to a preserving kettle and bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Pour into a stone jar and cover tightly.

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. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Plum + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together446 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Plum + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Plum + cassiatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Plums
Provide the main fruit body and flavor of the preserve.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, tangy character and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and helps draw moisture from the fruit into the syrup.

The step that matters

Repeated boiling of the syrup. Bringing the syrup to a full boil before each pour heats the fruit thoroughly and dissolves the sugar, so the syrup penetrates the plums evenly and the pickle keeps well.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, cassia, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Plumthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cassia, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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