Why it works: Sugar and currant 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 ↓
Red Raspberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Boil currant juice and raspberries together, then mash and stir well.
Add sugar and cook for 20 minutes longer.
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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Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and currant 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
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the fruit's pectin, helps the jam thicken and set.
- Raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor, body and natural pectin for the jam.
- Currant juice
- Adds extra tartness and pectin, helping the jam set and balancing the sweetness.
The step that matters
Cooking after adding the sugar. Sugar must dissolve fully and the mixture must boil long enough for pectin and acid to set the jam. Undercooking leaves it runny, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and dull the flavor.
“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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