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 ↓
Pipe Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Gather ripe gooseberries in dry weather.
Cut off the tops and tails.
Cook the jam
In a preserving pan, combine the gooseberries and red currant juice.
Boil quickly while stirring.
When the mixture begins to break down after about an hour, add the sugar.
Continue to simmer, stirring and skimming until the mixture becomes firm.
Pour into small pots and cover with oiled and egged paper once cool.
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
- Red hairy gooseberries
- Provide the fruit bulk and natural pectin that help the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it thicken and set.
- Red-currant juice
- Adds extra acidity and pectin to support setting and a tart flavour.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar after the fruit breaks down. Adding sugar too early can toughen the fruit skins and slow softening, while adding it once the fruit has broken down lets the pectin and acid combine with the sugar to set the jam properly.
“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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