Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the currant juice
Strip the currants from the stalks and place them in a jar.
Put the jar in a saucepan of boiling water and simmer until the juice is well drawn from the fruit.
Strain the currants and measure the juice.
Put the juice into a preserving pan and add the sugar.
Cook the jam
Select well-ripened strawberries and remove the stalks.
Add the strawberries to the pan when the sugar is dissolved in the currant juice.
Simmer the mixture over moderate heat for 30 to 45 minutes, carefully removing any scum that rises.
Stir the jam gently to prevent burning, keeping the fruit as whole as possible.
Jar
Pour the jam into jars and cover once cooled.
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.
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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and the bulk of the jam.
- Red currant juice
- Adds tartness and natural pectin to help the jam set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it keep and set.
The step that matters
Stir gently during simmering. Sugar on the bottom of the pan can scorch and burn, giving a bitter taste, while vigorous stirring breaks the strawberries apart. Gentle stirring keeps the pan from catching and leaves the fruit in whole pieces.
“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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