Why it works: Plum and rhubarb share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 40 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Ordinary Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh the fruit.
Cook the jam
Boil the fruit alone until it bubbles evenly.
Skim the fruit, but not too early to avoid waste.
For mixed fruits, boil the harder fruit longer.
Add the sugar and boil until a small amount sets on a plate.
Stir the mixture well from the sides and bottom of the pan, especially after adding sugar.
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 + rhubarbtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together40 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Currant + plumtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together255 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + rhubarbtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + plumtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,313 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Currant + rhubarbtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together45 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fruit
- Provides the main body, flavour and pectin that lets the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep well.
The step that matters
Stir the mixture well from the sides and bottom of the pan after adding sugar. Sugar sinks and sticks to the base of the pan, where it can scorch and taste burnt. Stirring from the sides and bottom keeps the mixture even and prevents burning.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, plum, rhubarb):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Quincefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, plum, rhubarb. 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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