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 ↓
Jellied Prunes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jelly
Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.
In a saucepan, combine sugar, lemon juice, and prune water; heat until sugar dissolves.
Add the softened gelatine to the mixture and stir until fully dissolved.
Allow the mixture to cool until it begins to set.
Set and serve
Stone and quarter the cooked prunes, then add them to the partially set jelly.
Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until fully set.
Serve chilled with sugar and cream.
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, wobbly jelly as it cools.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and balances the tartness of the lemon juice.
- Prune water
- Provides the main prune flavour and liquid base for the jelly.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet prune flavour.
The step that matters
Add the prunes to the partially set jelly. If the jelly is still too liquid, the prune pieces sink to the bottom; if it has set too firmly, they will not distribute evenly. Gelatine needs to be cooled until it thickens just enough to suspend the fruit.
“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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