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
Extract the juice
Place ripe plums in a kettle with water.
Boil until the plums burst, stirring constantly.
Pour the mixture through a sieve to extract juice.
Strain the juice through a piece of flannel.
Make the jelly
Add 1 pound of sugar for each pint of juice.
Boil until it jellies.
For leftover fruit, add 1 pound of sugar.
Cook until done.
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 fruit pectin and tart flavour that give the jelly its body and taste.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set into a firm, spreadable gel.
The step that matters
Boil until it jellies. Jelly sets only when enough sugar and pectin are cooked together to the right concentration. Stopping too early leaves a runny result, while overcooking can make it stiff and 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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