Why it works: White currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 59 recipes. The science ↓
Currant Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash, stem, and mash the currants.
Cook the jam
In a granite kettle, combine the currants and ¼ pound of sugar.
Stir and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, add the remaining sugar gradually.
Boil until the mixture is very thick.
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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White currant + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together59 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Currants
- Provide the fruit base, and their natural pectin helps the jam thicken as it boils.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar gradually after boiling. Adding sugar in portions after the currants reach a boil helps the mixture keep boiling steadily and prevents scorching. Boiling it down until very thick concentrates the sugar and pectin so the jam sets as it cools.
“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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