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
Place the damson plums in a pot with enough water to cover them.
Boil for 10 minutes until the plums are soft.
Strain the mixture to extract the juice.
Make the jelly
Measure the juice and add 14 ounces of sugar for each pound of fruit used.
Boil the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and the jelly reaches a firm consistency.
Jar
Pour the jelly into jars and seal.
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
- Damson plums
- Provide natural pectin and acid that help the jelly set and give it a tart flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with pectin and acid, helps the jelly gel and keeps it preserved.
The step that matters
Boil until the jelly is firm. Sugar and pectin only gel once the mixture is concentrated enough. Stopping too early leaves a runny jelly, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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