Why it works: Sugar and red currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Raspberry Jam Without Seeds
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Bruise the currants in a preserving pan with the water.
Add the picked raspberries.
Stir over heat for a few minutes.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a large pan.
Make the jam
Boil the sugar with just enough water to dissolve it until it reaches the pearl stage.
Add the pulp to the sugar.
Boil sharply for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.
When the jam drapes off the edge of the spoon, pour it into jars.
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 + red curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and the pulp that forms the body of the jam.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, helps it thicken and set as it cools.
- Red currants
- Add natural pectin and acidity that help the jam set and brighten its flavour.
The step that matters
Boiling the pulp with the sugar. Boiling sharply for the full time concentrates the sugar and drives off water so the jam reaches the setting point. Stopping early leaves it runny, while constant stirring prevents scorching on the bottom 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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