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 ↓
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the jam
In a preserving pan, combine the sugar and red currant juice.
Place the pan over medium heat and stir until boiling.
Add the strawberries and stir gently until boiling.
Skim off any foam and boil slowly for 30 minutes.
Rest and pot
Remove the pan from heat and let it stand for 10 minutes.
Stir occasionally before potting.
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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and body of the jam.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, thickens it and helps it keep.
- Red currant juice
- Adds acidity and natural pectin that help the jam set.
The step that matters
Boiling slowly for 30 minutes. Boiling drives off water so the sugar and fruit concentrate to the point where the pectin and acid can set the jam as it cools. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while boiling too hard or too long can scorch the sugar and darken the flavour.
“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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