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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Halve and stone the plums.
Make the jelly
Slowly cook the plums in a kettle until the juice flows freely.
Fill the kettle with the cut fruit and boil slowly, stirring often.
Add an equal weight of sugar to the fruit juice.
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
- Plums
- Provide the juice, natural pectin and acid that help the jelly set and give it flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it gel and keep.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar to the juice. Sugar, pectin and acid must be boiled together for the jelly to set. Sugar added to juice that is not yet boiled enough can leave a runny result, while overcooking can make it stiff or dull.
“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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