Why it works: Walnut and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,147 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Make Green Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Cut the green walnut gooseberries in half and remove the seeds.
Soak them in a pan of water and drain on a sieve.
Beat the gooseberries in a marble mortar with an equal weight of sugar.
Make the jam
Boil a quart of gooseberries in a quart of water until mushy, then strain the liquid.
For every pint of liquid, add a pound of fine loaf sugar and boil while skimming.
Add the green gooseberries and boil until thick and clear, then transfer to glasses for storage.
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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Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,147 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green walnut gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit body and natural pectin that help the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, at high concentration, helps it thicken and keep.
- Gooseberries
- Break down into pulp and liquid that gives the jam its body and tartness.
The step that matters
Boil until thick and clear. Jam sets when enough sugar and pectin are concentrated by boiling. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in colour.
“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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