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
Wash and pit the plums.
Extract the juice
Combine the plums and water in a large pot and boil until the plums are soft.
Pour the mixture into a jelly bag and let it drip without squeezing.
Make the jelly
Measure the juice and add an equal weight of sugar.
Boil the juice and sugar together for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it jellies.
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, flavor and natural pectin that help the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set and keep its gel structure.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice and sugar until it jellies. The jelly sets only when the pectin, sugar and acid in the juice reach the gel point. Undercooked jelly stays runny, while overcooking can make it stiff, dull or sticky.
“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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