Why it works: Red currant and sugar 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 ↓
Cherry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove the stones from the cherries and set them aside in a pan.
Extract the juice from the currants and set that aside as well.
Make the jam
Boil the sugar until it reaches the ball degree.
Add the cherries and currant juice to the boiling sugar.
Boil sharply for twenty minutes, stirring with a copper skimmer. Remove the scum as it rises.
When the jam sets and falls from the skimmer, it is ready to be poured into pots. Finish in the usual manner.
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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Red currant + sugartop 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
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, body and pectin-bearing pulp for the jam.
- Red currants
- Add tart acidity and extra pectin to help the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, when boiled, thickens and helps preserve it.
The step that matters
Judging the set. Boiling too briefly leaves the jam runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff or caramelised. The skimmer test shows when enough water has evaporated and pectin and sugar have reached a gel point.
“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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