Why it works: Sugar and mulberry work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Mulberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove all stalks from the mulberries.
Make the jam
In a preserving pan, combine the mulberry juice and sugar, and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 5 minutes to dissolve the sugar, skimming well.
Add the whole fruit and boil quickly for 30 minutes, stirring well.
Test for doneness by placing a little on a cold plate; if it jellies stiffly, it is done.
Jar
Pour into jars and cover when cold.
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 + mulberrytop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Preserving sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with the fruit and juice, helps it set as it cooks.
- Mulberries
- Provide the fruit flavour, colour and body of the jam.
- Mulberry juice
- Adds liquid and extra mulberry flavour to the pan before the fruit goes in.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness on a cold plate. Jam sets because sugar and pectin concentrate as water evaporates. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and sticky, so the cold-plate test shows when it has reached a 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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