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 ↓
Strawberry Jam with Seeds
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the jam
Boil the sugar until it reaches the pearl stage.
Add the picked fruit and currant juice.
Stir on the fire for 20 minutes of sharp boiling.
Test the jam for doneness.
Pot the jam
Pour the jam into pots.
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.
-
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and the bulk of the jam.
- Currant juice
- Adds natural pectin and acidity to help the jam set and balance sweetness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps preserve it while it thickens.
The step that matters
Stir during the 20 minutes of sharp boiling. Constant stirring at a hard boil keeps the sugar and fruit from scorching on the bottom of the pan, and the boil drives off water so the jam can thicken.
“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.
More strawberry jam recipes
You might also like
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.