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 ↓
Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the gooseberries with currant juice for 1 hour.
Add the sugar and boil for an additional 30 to 45 minutes, until it simmers.
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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the fruit body and natural pectin that help the jam thicken and set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it concentrates, helps it set and preserves it.
- Currant juice
- Adds liquid to start the cooking and extra tartness and fruit flavour.
The step that matters
Boiling with the sugar. Sugar is added only after the fruit has softened, and the jam must then boil long enough to reach the concentration needed to set. Stopping too early leaves it runny; boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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