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
Make the juice
Boil plums in water until they begin to open and release juice.
Pour off the liquid and strain it.
Make the jelly
For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of white sugar.
Return the mixture to the kettle and boil for 20 to 30 minutes.
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 and natural pectin that let the jelly set.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by binding water and firming the gel.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar for 20 to 30 minutes. Boiling concentrates the sugar and pectin until the mixture reaches the gel point. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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