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 ↓
Chbrrt Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit and syrup
Boil the pitted cherries until soft and let the juice run out.
In a separate pot, combine the red currant juice and loaf sugar; bring to a boil.
Cook the jam
Add the cherries to the boiling mixture and sprinkle with sifted sugar.
Boil everything together rapidly for 30 minutes.
Pot and seal
Pour the jam into pots and let it cool.
Once cool, cover with brandy papers.
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
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit body, flavor and bulk of the jam.
- Red currant juice
- Adds tartness and natural pectin to help the jam set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, helps it thicken and keep.
- Sifted sugar
- Adds further sweetness and dissolves into the fruit to help it set.
The step that matters
Boiling rapidly for 30 minutes. A rapid boil evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and fruit pectin. If the boil is too gentle or too short, the jam may stay runny and fail to set.
“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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