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Dessert

Cherry Marmalade

A preserved fruit spread made from cherries, currant juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓

Cherry Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Rub the stoned cherries through a sieve.

  2. Add ½ pint of currant juice to the cherries.

Cook and set

  1. Place the mixture on the fire and stir in ¾ pound of sugar for every pound of fruit.

  2. Boil until it thickens to a jelly consistency.

Jar and cover

  1. Pour into jars and cover with a paper dipped in brandy once cooled.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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

Stoned cherries
Provide the main fruit, flavour and body of the marmalade.
Currant juice
Adds tartness and extra pectin to help the marmalade set.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps it thicken into a jelly as it boils.

The step that matters

Boil until it thickens to a jelly consistency. Sugar and fruit pectin only set properly after enough water has evaporated and the mixture reaches the right concentration. Stopping too early leaves a runny preserve, while overcooking can make it stiff and sugary.

“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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