Why it works: Black currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Black Currant Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the currants
Strip the currants from the stalks and bruise them slightly in a preserving pan.
Stew the currants gently, stirring until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Pour off about three parts of the juice for jelly.
Sieve the remaining pulp.
Weigh the pulp.
Make the marmalade
Boil the pulp rapidly for 15 minutes, or 20 minutes if there's a large quantity.
For each pound of pulp, stir in 9 ounces of finely rolled or pounded white sugar until dissolved.
Boil the marmalade quickly for 10 minutes, stirring often.
Pour the marmalade into small pans.
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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Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 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
- Black currants
- Provide the fruit pulp that sets and gives the marmalade its body and tart flavour.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, with boiling, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boil the marmalade quickly for 10 minutes, stirring often. Sugar and fruit pectin only set properly once the mixture reaches a rolling boil and enough water has evaporated. Stirring often prevents the sugar from scorching on the base of the pan.
“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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