Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim the gooseberries.
Combine the gooseberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan.
Cook
Bring the mixture to a boil and skim off any foam.
Cook, stirring often, until thick and it jellies on a plate.
Finish
Strain the mixture through a colander.
Pour the jam into jars.
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 + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the fruit, pectin and tartness that give the jam its body and flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it cooks.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens flavor and supports pectin setting.
The step that matters
Cook until the jam jellies on a plate. Stop cooking too early and the jam stays runny; cook too long and it becomes stiff and sugary. A cold plate test shows when the sugar and pectin have reached the set point.
“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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