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 ↓
Wild Plum Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Boil the plums in the water for 20 minutes.
Pour off one quart of the juice.
Make the jelly
Add the sugar to the juice.
Boil the mixture in a porcelain or bright kettle over a brisk fire for 20 minutes.
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
- Plums
- Provide the fruit flavor, plus natural pectin and acid that help the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, once concentrated by boiling, helps the jelly set firm.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar. The jelly sets only when enough sugar, pectin and acid are concentrated by boiling. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff or cause sugar to crystallize.
“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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