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 ↓
Green Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Cut the green walnut gooseberries in half and remove the seeds.
Soak them in water and drain on a sieve.
In a marble mortar, beat the gooseberries with an equal weight of sugar.
Make the jam
Boil the quart of gooseberries in a quart of water until mushy, then strain the liquid.
For every pint of liquid, add 1 pound of sugar, boil and skim.
Add the green gooseberries and boil until thick and clear.
Store
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.
-
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 tart fruit flavor and pectin-rich body that the jam sets around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it boils.
- Gooseberries
- Cooked to a pulp to release juice and pectin for the jam's base.
- Water
- Softens the gooseberries so they break down into a mushy pulp before straining.
The step that matters
Boil until thick and clear. Jam sets only when enough sugar and pectin are concentrated by boiling; stopping too early leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it dull and tough.
“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 gooseberry jam recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 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.