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 ↓
Cherry and Currant Preserve
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove pits from cherries and stems from currants.
Make the preserve
Pour sugar over the fruit and let it stand until the sugar dissolves.
Cook the mixture slowly for 30 minutes.
Pour into sterilized jelly glasses and cover with paraffin when cold.
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
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit body and flavor of the preserve.
- Currants
- Add tartness and acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, as it cooks down, thickens the preserve and helps it keep.
The step that matters
Cooking slowly for 30 minutes. Cooking gently lets the sugar dissolve fully and the fruit soften and release pectin without scorching. Too fast a boil can burn the sugar on the bottom of the pan and give a dark, bitter taste.
“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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