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Dessert

Black Currant Jam

A jam made from black currants, rhubarb juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare rhubarb as for jelly and take 3 pints rhubarb juice.

  2. Put the juice in a preserving kettle with 9 pounds sugar. Stir until it boils.

  3. Add 6 pounds black currants.

Cook and seal

  1. Boil for 15 minutes or until the currants are tender.

  2. Seal in small jars.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. 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. Sugar + black curranttop 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

Rhubarb juice
Provides the liquid base and natural tartness that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, as it cooks down, helps it thicken and set.
Black currants
Supply the main fruit flavour, pectin and body for the jam.

The step that matters

Boil for 15 minutes or until the currants are tender. Boiling concentrates the sugar and fruit until the mixture reaches a set; stopping too early leaves the jam runny, while overcooking can darken and dull its flavour.

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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