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 ↓
Cherry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh the cherries before stoning and allow half their weight in sugar.
Stone the cherries and boil them in a preserving pan until most of the juice has evaporated.
Make the jam
Add the crushed sugar and red currant juice, using 1 pint of juice for every 6 lbs of cherries.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a jelly consistency, about 20 minutes to 1 hour.
Skim the jam well and stir frequently.
A few minutes before it's done, crack some of the cherry stones and add the kernels for flavor.
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.
-
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
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit body, flavor and bulk that the jam is built around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, helps it thicken to a set.
- Red currant juice
- Adds acidity and natural pectin to help the jam reach a jelly consistency.
The step that matters
Boil until jelly consistency. Under-boiling leaves the jam runny, while over-boiling can make it stiff and dull in flavor. Sugar concentration and pectin from the currant juice together determine when it sets, so the cook should test for a set rather than rely on time alone.
“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 cherry 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.