Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓
Currant Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pick over the currants, removing all leaves and stems.
Mash the currants and press them through a colander.
Cook the jam
Add 1.5 pounds of white sugar for every 2 pounds of fruit.
Cook the mixture until it becomes very thick.
Jar and seal
Pour into jars and seal.
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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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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 pectin and acidity that give the jam its body and tang.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it cooks down, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Cooking until very thick. Sugar and fruit must be cooked long enough to concentrate and reach the gel point. Undercooked jam stays runny and may not keep well once jarred.
“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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