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Dessert

Brandied Plums

Preserved unripe plums soaked in brandy with sugar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Brandied Plums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plums

  1. Select unripe plums and wipe them carefully with a linen cloth.

  2. Prick each plum several times with a wooden or silver needle.

  3. Place the plums in boiling water for 10 minutes, then remove from heat.

  4. Heat the water again until the plums float, then skim and transfer them to ice water.

  5. Once cold, drain the plums and place them in a glass or stone vessel with brandy.

Make the spiced brandy

  1. Let the plums soak in the brandy for six days.

  2. For each gallon of brandy, add 8 ounces of granulated sugar.

  3. Tie the spices in a muslin bag and immerse it in the brandy, bringing it to a boil.

  4. Pour the spiced brandy over the plums and seal the container.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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. Allspice + coriandertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Cinnamon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Unripe plums
Provide the fruit that softens and absorbs the brandy and spice flavour during soaking.
Good quality brandy
Acts as the preserving liquid that extracts flavour from the fruit and spices.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the strong alcohol and spice flavours.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the brandy.
Ground cloves
Adds warm, pungent aroma to the brandy.

The step that matters

Pricking and blanching the plums. Pricking lets the brandy penetrate the skin, and the boiling water and ice bath change the fruit's texture so it absorbs the liquid evenly. Skipping these steps leaves the fruit unevenly flavoured.

Swap the coriander

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, brandy, sugar, cinnamon, clove, 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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