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
Prepare the fruit
Cut the damson plums into small pieces without peeling them.
Add an equal quantity of cold water to the fruit.
Cook the mixture until the fruit is tender and can be mashed smooth.
Extract and set
Strain the mixture through cheesecloth in a sieve to extract the juice.
Measure the juice and add 1 pound of sugar for every pint of juice.
Boil the juice down and add the sugar, stirring until dissolved.
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 the fruit's natural pectin and acid, which allow the juice to gel.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by binding water and firming the gel.
The step that matters
Boil the juice down with the sugar. Sugar must dissolve fully and the juice must reach a concentrated, gel-forming state. Undercooking leaves the jelly runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or caramelised.
“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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