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Dessert

Currant Jam

Jam made from currants, sugar, raisins, oranges, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Currant Jam

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Squeeze the oranges onto the currants and cook for one hour.

  2. Add the raisins and chopped orange peel with the sugar into the currants and cook until quite thick.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

198Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
49 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [from old catalog]. 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide the main fruit body and pectin that thickens the jam as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the jam thicken and keep its set.
Raisins
Add sweetness and body, thickening the jam as they soften.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking until quite thick. Jam sets as sugar and fruit pectin concentrate during cooking. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while cooking too long can scorch the sugar and darken the flavour.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, vinegar, orange, pepper, mustard, cinnamon. 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.

More currant jam recipes

Black 54Red 28White 17Raspberry 5Spiced 5Green 4 See all 57 →

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