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Dessert

Currant and Orange Jam

A jam made from currants, raisins, and oranges, cooked until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Currant and Orange Jam

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine five pounds currants, five pounds sugar, one and one-half pounds seeded raisins, and four chopped oranges, rind and all.

  2. Cook for twenty minutes after it begins to boil.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

173Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
44 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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. See the original page.

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. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Currant + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Currants
Provide the fruit body and natural pectin and acid that help the jam thicken and set.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, by concentrating as it cooks, helps it set and keeps it preserved.
Seeded raisins
Add sweetness and a chewy, thickened body to the jam.
Oranges
Add bright acidity and a citrus aroma, with the rind adding bitter oils and pectin.

The step that matters

Cook for twenty minutes after it begins to boil. The timer starts only at a full boil. Too short a cook leaves the jam runny because pectin and sugar have not concentrated enough to set; too long a cook can make it dark, sticky, and overly firm.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, orange. 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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