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Dessert

Obken Currant Jam

A jam made from currants and powdered sugar, cooked until it thickens.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 ↓

Obken Currant Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bruise part of the currants with a small portion of the sugar.

  2. Place the bruised currants and sugar in a preserving pan over a gentle fire.

  3. Stir constantly until enough juice flows to prevent burning.

Cook

  1. Add the remaining currants and sugar, mixing well.

  2. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, or until it jellies strongly when tested with a skimmer.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 flavor and set.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, helps it thicken and set.

The step that matters

Stir constantly at the start. Before enough juice releases, the sugar and fruit sit dry over heat and can scorch on the pan bottom. Constant stirring keeps the mixture moving until juice pools and burning is prevented.

“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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