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 ↓
Cherry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Pit the cherries and place them in a preserving pan.
Add the white sugar and currant juice.
Boil the mixture for 20 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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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
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit bulk and flavour, and most of the set-forming fruit body in the jam.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the jam thicken and keep by binding water.
- Currant juice
- Adds tartness and natural pectin and acid that help the jam set.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes. Sugar and fruit pectin only set properly once the mixture reaches a hot, concentrated state. Boiling too briefly leaves the jam runny, while boiling too long can darken it and make it stiff.
“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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