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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the plums
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the plums in the oven to burst them.
Once the plums are burst, mash them to a pulp.
Make the jelly
Measure equal parts of plum pulp and sugar.
Combine the pulp and sugar in a pot and boil for 5 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 fruit base, flavour, and natural pectin that helps the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, helps the jelly set, and preserves the fruit.
The step that matters
Boil the pulp and sugar together. Boiling the pulp with sugar concentrates the mixture and lets the pectin and fruit acids form a gel as it cools. Using equal parts of pulp and sugar keeps the balance needed for a proper set.
“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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