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Dessert

Black Currant and Rhubarb Jam

A jam made from rhubarb and black currants boiled with water and sugar.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and black currant share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Black Currant and Rhubarb Jam

Timeabout 3 ½ min to jam stage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Trim rhubarb, cut in 1 cm pieces.

  2. Combine fruits.

Make the jam

  1. Add water; bring to a boil and cook 10 min.

  2. Add sugar, stirring to dissolve.

  3. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

  4. Boil to jam stage (about 3 ½ min).

  5. When jam stage is reached, remove from heat.

  6. Stir and skim for 5 min.

Test and jar

  1. The temperature test; mixture should reach 102–104 °C.

  2. The plate test; use a cold plate from freezer.

  3. Pour a small amount of boiling mixture onto plate.

  4. Return to freezer; wait 1 min then check for gelling.

  5. If gelling has not occurred, return sample to kettle and continue to boil, testing every 2 min.

  6. Note: When using this test remove kettle from heat.

  7. Pour into hot sterilized jars.

  8. Cool and seal.

  9. May be stored up to 1 year.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

  1. Rhubarb + black curranttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it set as it cooks.
Rhubarb
Adds tartness and body, and its pieces soften into the jam.
Black currants
Provide deep flavour and natural pectin that helps the jam gel.

The step that matters

Judging the jam stage. Overcooking makes jam stiff and sugary, while undercooking leaves it runny. Sugar concentration and pectin set only at the right point, so the temperature and plate tests help confirm gelling before jarring.

Swap the black currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Black currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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