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Dessert

Plum Marmalade

A fruit marmalade made from plums, apples, mulberries, cherries, peaches, blackberries, sugar, spices, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash and drain the fruits.

  2. Remove the seeds from the fruits.

  3. Add just enough water to prevent burning while cooking.

  4. Boil the mixture until tender.

Make the marmalade

  1. Add 4 1/2 pounds of sugar and boil slowly, skimming regularly until thick.

  2. Season with ground cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and a hint of mace and nutmeg.

  3. Pack the marmalade away as you would for jam.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Plum + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Plum + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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, pectin and flavour for the marmalade.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as it thickens, helps the marmalade set.
Apples
Add natural pectin that helps the marmalade thicken and set.
Peaches
Contribute soft pulp, moisture and mild sweetness to the body of the marmalade.
Blackberries
Add colour, tartness and fruity depth to the marmalade.

The step that matters

Boil slowly and skim until thick after adding the sugar. Sugar must dissolve fully and the mixture must reach a thick, gel-like consistency; boiling too hard can scorch the sugar and fruit on the bottom, while undercooking leaves it runny. Regular skimming removes foam so the marmalade stays clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, apple, peach, sugar, clove, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, apple, peach, sugar, clove, cinnamon, allspice. 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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