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
Make the jam
Boil the sugar until it reaches the pearl stage.
Add the picked strawberries and currant juice.
Stir on the fire for 20 minutes of sharp boiling.
Test and pot
Test the jam for doneness using the usual method.
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.
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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 flavour and most of the bulk of the jam.
- Currant juice
- Adds acidity and natural pectin, which help the jam set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the jam thicken and set as it boils.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness. Jam sets when pectin, acid and sugar reach the right concentration at a boil. Too little cooking leaves it runny, and too much makes it stiff and dull.
“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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