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 Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the plums
Select very ripe plums and place them in a granite or porcelain-lined stew kettle.
Add 2 tablespoons of water, cover tightly, and steam slowly until enough water forms to cook without burning.
Boil until the plums can be rubbed to a pulp, then pass through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Make the paste
Return the pulp to the fire and cook slowly until very thick.
Add brown sugar equal to half the weight of the plum pulp, let it dissolve, and boil for a few minutes.
Dry and store
Pour the mixture into earthen plates or dishes in ¼-inch thick layers and dry slowly in a warm oven.
Remove when sufficiently dry and pack away for use in puddings, candies, cakes, etc.
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
- Very ripe plums
- Provide the fruit pulp, pectin and flavour that form the body of the paste.
- Brown sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps it set firm when dried.
The step that matters
Cook the pulp until very thick before adding sugar. Pulp that still holds much water will not thicken or dry properly, and extra moisture slows drying and can encourage spoilage. Thickening by slow cooking first drives off water so the sugar-sweetened paste can set into a firm, sliceable layer.
“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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