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 ↓
135 Plum Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Wash the plums in cold water and place them in a preserving kettle.
Add 2 quarts of water for each bushel of fruit and cover the kettle.
Cook slowly until the fruit is soft and tender.
Turn the mixture into a flannel jelly bag.
Let it drip until the fruit is dry.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of granulated sugar.
Bring the juice to a boil in the preserving kettle.
Stir in the sugar until dissolved.
Boil rapidly until it jellies, about 25 minutes.
Remove any scum that rises to the surface.
Jar and set
Roll jelly tumblers in boiling water.
Fill the tumblers with the boiling liquid.
Set aside for 24 hours before sealing with covers.
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
- Common blue plums
- Provide the fruit flavour, natural pectin and acidity that allow the juice to set.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, when boiled, helps it thicken and set into a gel.
The step that matters
Boil rapidly until it jellies. Jelly sets only when enough water evaporates and sugar and pectin reach the right concentration. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff.
“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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