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 Mould
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the prunes
Split the prunes and remove the stones.
Place the prunes in a saucepan with the water, sugar, lemon juice, and thinly-cut lemon rind.
Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
Set in moulds
Melt the gelatine in 1 tablespoon of water and mix it with the contents of the saucepan.
Add a few drops of cochineal and pour into one large or several small moulds rinsed with cold water.
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
- Prunes
- Provide the main fruit flavour, body and deep colour of the set mould.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tart lemon and rich prune flavour.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and fresh aroma that lift the sweetness of the prunes.
The step that matters
Dissolving the gelatine. The gelatine must be fully dissolved in the water before it is mixed into the hot fruit. Undissolved granules leave gritty patches, and gelatine that is boiled loses much of its setting strength, so the mould may not firm properly.
“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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