Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Delicious Red Currant Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather currants on a dry day and strip them from the stalks.
Cook the jam
Place currants in a preserving pan with powdered sugar.
Stir gently over a brisk fire and bring to a boil.
Boil for exactly 8 minutes from the first full boil.
If the jam rises over the pan, lift it from the fire for a moment.
For a sweeter jam, use equal weights of fruit and sugar and boil for 7 minutes.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red currants
- Provide natural pectin and tartness, which help the jam set and balance the sweetness.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with the fruit's acid and pectin, helps it set and keeps it preserved.
The step that matters
Boiling for exactly 8 minutes from the first full boil. Pectin sets the jam only when sugar, acid and heat work together for the right time. Boiling too short leaves the jam runny, while boiling too long breaks down pectin and dulls the fresh fruit 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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