Why it works: Sugar and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,592 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Mint Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select green or light-colored crabapples.
Make the jelly
Boil the juice with ¾ cup of granulated sugar.
Just before cooking is finished, add 5-6 mint leaves for flavor.
Add 4-8 drops of vegetable green to each pint of jelly, if desired.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + minttop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by combining with pectin and acid.
- Crabapples
- Supply the juice and natural pectin that gel the jelly.
- Mint leaves
- Add aromatic flavor to the finished jelly.
The step that matters
Adding the mint just before cooking is finished. Mint's volatile aroma oils dissipate with prolonged heat, so adding it late preserves its fresh flavor. Adding it too early leaves the jelly tasting flat or cooked.
“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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