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 ↓
Damson Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Bake the damsons in a slow oven or boil them in water until soft.
Pour off the clear juice from the fruit, strain, and weigh it.
Cook the jam
Boil the juice quickly without sugar for 25 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in 10 ounces of sugar for each pound of juice.
Boil quickly for 6 to 10 minutes, stirring constantly and removing any scum.
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
- Fine ripe damsons
- Provide the fruit flavor and the juice that becomes the jam.
- Good sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep.
The step that matters
Final quick boil after adding sugar. Sugar must dissolve fully, and the jam must boil hard enough to concentrate and set. Constant stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt flavor.
“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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