Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Prune Shape
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the prunes and gelatine
Soak the gelatine in 2½ cups of water.
Stew the prunes in the water until tender, then remove and stone them.
In the same liquid, add lemon rind, gelatine, and water.
Stir over heat until it boils, then cook gently for 15 minutes.
Strain the mixture, add the prunes and lemon juice, and cook for 3 minutes.
Mould and set
Scald a mold, run cold water into it, and pour in the prune mixture.
Allow it to stand until set.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Prunes
- Provide the main flavour, sweetness and soft fruity body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the tart lemon and dark prune flavour.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and bright aroma that lifts the sweet prune flavour.
The step that matters
Boiling the gelatine mixture. Gelatine must dissolve completely before setting. Prolonged or vigorous boiling weakens its gel-forming ability, so the jelly may set softly. Stir until it just boils, then keep the heat gentle.
“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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