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 ↓
English Guava
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove the stalks from the guavas and cut some of them.
Place the guavas and any available imperatrice plums into stone jars.
Boil the jars in a water bath as directed.
Drain the juice and strain it through a thick strainer.
Make the jelly
Weigh the juice and boil it quickly for 15 to 20 minutes.
Stir in 3/4 lb of sugar for every lb of juice until dissolved.
Remove the scum and boil again for 8 to 12 minutes until it jellies.
Pour the jelly into shallow pans or small molds and let it set before serving.
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
- Shepherd's bullace or other red plums
- Provides natural pectin and acid that help the juice set into a jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the jelly set and keep its structure.
The step that matters
Boil again until it jellies. The juice, sugar and pectin must reach the right concentration to gel. Stopping too early leaves a runny jelly, while boiling too long can make it stiff and grainy.
“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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