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Dessert

Plum Jelly

A preserved plum dessert made with plums, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Start the syrup

  1. Tie the spices in a bag and boil them with the vinegar and sugar.

  2. Skim the mixture well, then add the plums.

Cook the plums

  1. Cook until the plums are clear.

  2. Carefully remove the plums from the syrup and place them in a jar or crock.

Finish and seal

  1. Boil the syrup down until thick and pour it over the plums.

  2. Seal the jar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + cassiatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  5. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wild plums
Supply the fruit flavor and natural pectin that help the jelly set.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates in the boiling syrup, helps it thicken and keep.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and supports pectin setting and preservation.
Mixed whole spices
Infuse the syrup with warm, aromatic flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup down until thick. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar, which is what thickens the syrup. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while the pectin and acid need enough heat and concentration to set properly.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, cassia, allspice, clove):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, cassia, allspice, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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